00:00Welcome back to From the South and let's go to Argentina.
00:03Citizens have been marking over this week the 50th anniversary of the 1976 coup d'etat
00:08which brought about a bloody civic and military dictatorship.
00:12Precisely, in this context we are going to make a call now,
00:15a live contact with our correspondent in Argentina, Belén de los Santos.
00:19Hello, Belén. Thank you for being once again here with us.
00:24Hello, Ale. It's a pleasure to greet you here from Buenos Aires once again.
00:28And as you were saying, it's the end of a very significant week,
00:32a week in which we have been following the acts that demands the mobilization of truth, memory, and justice here
00:40in Argentina.
00:41We know and we have been following all the stories that this is not just one day, this is not
00:47just one mobilization.
00:48It is a constant exercise that goes throughout different aspects of Argentinian life.
00:55But of course, this week, being the 50th anniversary of la coup d'etat that opened that violent period,
01:03such an important period to understand and to also continue the struggles of the present,
01:08well, it was a very significant time in which to come back to different aspects of what this coup d
01:15'etat meant,
01:15what that period of Argentinian history meant, and what it means today.
01:21And that's what we have been doing, sharing little and bigger stories that have to do with that period.
01:28And to the end, we prepared a package.
01:31We have been talking to different people that are linked to this subject, to this period of time,
01:39through different ways, trying to understand why is it important to look at this period in Argentina
01:46from a regional perspective.
01:49Despite having its own characteristics, the coup d'etat that gave way to the civic military dictatorship in Argentina
01:56was not an isolated case.
01:58It was one chapter in the midst of a regional operation organized by the United States,
02:06and it took different forms in different countries, particularly we're talking about the countries
02:12in the southern cone of the continent.
02:16And that idea, that link from this period to the region in general,
02:21and also how that relates to the present of our continent,
02:25that is what we have been working on.
02:26We prepared our material and we can see it now.
02:31An important week of remembrance comes to a close in Argentina
02:35as the country marks 50 years since its last civic military dictatorship.
02:41Amid a repressive government led by Javier Milley,
02:43who has openly defended the military's violence and crimes,
02:47close to a million people took to the streets,
02:51continuing a historic struggle for truth, memory and justice,
02:54and against the violent persecution of those who fight for a more fair world order.
03:03What happened here in Argentina on this past March 24th was very important for the whole of the Argentine people
03:12because it came out to the streets in overwhelming numbers to reaffirm the historical slogan of memory,
03:20truth and justice.
03:22Never again to a military cope in favor of the interest of business sector,
03:28of the concentrated economic power, of U.S. imperialism.
03:37From a regional perspective, Argentina's dictatorship was one of the most violent chapters
03:42of a broader U.S.-backed Operation Condor aimed at suppressing political dissent
03:48and stopping the spread of leftist movements across the continent.
03:52Hundreds of Latin Americans of other nationalities were also among its victims,
03:57including two members of the Cuban diplomatic delegation in the country.
04:05They were two young diplomats,
04:07Jesús C. Hazarias and Cresencio Galañena Hernández,
04:13who were detained outside the embassy.
04:15They were part of the Cuban diplomatic delegation.
04:18There were testimonies that they were in their related workshops.
04:26And in time, their remains were found in some 200-liter drums filled with cement,
04:31each in separate drum, in the Delta area.
04:34There were 900s.
04:37We have to understand that the Condor plan,
04:40which covered the entire southern cong,
04:42also had its impact with these Cuban comrades.
04:45So, when we say 30,000 detainees and disappeared comrades,
04:50among those 30,000 are Jesús and Cresencio.
04:54Just as in the 1970s the dictatorship was part of a broader strategy
04:59to enforce U.S. control over the region,
05:02today's resistance movement needs to be inscribed
05:05in the larger anti-imperialist struggles of the present.
05:11If one goes back to that moment of 1976,
05:16one sees that the coup that took place in Argentina
05:19was a coup linked to a military political strategy
05:23in other countries of the region,
05:26what was called the Condor Operation.
05:29And we know that today the United States
05:32and the concentrated economic power
05:34also have a plan for the entire continent.
05:40That is why the demonstration
05:42that the Argentine people made on March 24th
05:45was also to tell the international and Latin American right
05:49that there is a people in Argentina that resist.
05:54But that is also articulating
05:57and is working together with the peoples of the region.
06:02Argentina's dictatorship sought to break bonds of solidarity
06:05both within the country and across borders.
06:08Today, memory transcends those borders,
06:11becoming a cry in the fence of sovereignty
06:14shared across the continent.
06:19I am Chilean.
06:20I have lived in Argentina since 2005
06:23and I already had my 50th anniversary.
06:26And now, this is my second 50th anniversary.
06:31In a terrible context.
06:33With the government, I don't know how to describe it.
06:36It is inhuman, with a detestable being.
06:39And memory strikes harder.
06:44The first and main thing is not to forget,
06:47because if we forget,
06:49all these situations are repeated again.
06:51And some are almost the same
06:53as what happened at the time of the dictatorship,
06:55where we are living that is not loving the other.
06:58With the grandmothers and mothers of Plaza de Mayo,
07:01we have shown that the Argentine people
07:03are the country's most valuable resource.
07:07So we have to take care of that
07:09and we have to pass it on to the children,
07:11to the grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
07:14and the permanent respect to the people
07:16who have given their life for us
07:18to always carry them in our hearts.
07:32That's what we were gathering the information,
07:35the spirit of this week.
07:37We wanted to link it to the rest of the continent.
07:41This idea that this new organization in Argentina
07:44is also linked to the demonstrations
07:47that continue to happen across the continent
07:50and a moment in which the region
07:52is being attacked by imperialist forces.
07:56That moment in the 70s was a moment
07:59in which the United States, for example,
08:02wanted to enforce its control over the region.
08:04We are looking at a similar stage right now.
08:08And the idea of joining forces,
08:10of continuing mobilization,
08:12and understanding the links between these nations
08:16is key to understand the crescent we are in.
08:19That is all, Ale, for now
08:21and for this week of truth, memory, and justice
08:24here in Argentina.
08:25Thank you very much, Belle,
08:26for being our eyes throughout this week
08:28of struggle, of collective memory,
08:30of justice, as well as you said.
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