Human rights activists surrounded the Buenos Aires City Legislature on Monday to denounce an event honoring victims of armed leftist groups during the 1970s, when Argentina was engulfed by political violence.
The tribute was arranged by Victoria Villaruel—the running-mate of right-wing populist presidential candidate Javier Milei—and demonstrators called it an attempt to change the narrative about crimes against humanity perpetrated by the country’s last military dictatorship.
Villaruel, a lawmaker, has long defended military officers convicted of crimes against humanity during the bloody 1976-1983 dictatorship.
The event included brief talks by three people who had family members slain by leftist guerrillas in the 1970s before the 1976 military coup.
Argentina’s military junta that ruled from 1976 through 1983 is widely considered the most deadly of the dictatorships that ruled much of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. It detained, tortured, and killed people suspected of opposing the regime. Human rights groups estimate 30,000 were slain, many of whom disappeared without a trace.
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