The dismantlement of the process of Memory, Truth and Justice advances in Argentina
In Argentina, the ruling party of President Javier Milei has continued with its public policy of attack against the fundamental areas of the transitional process.
This time, it has been reported by various mass media, human rights organisations and jurists working on cases against humanity that The Navy has begun to move the extensive General Archive of the Navy (AGA) and, as part of this, they have decided to ‘purge’ the documentation in their possession, authorising it to be shredded. This reinforces a policy that had already begun with the decision of the Minister of Defence –Luis Petri– last year to dismantle the Documentary Survey and Analysis Team (ERyA), which had been working since 2010 to support cases against humanity, accusing its members of ‘persecuting’ the Armed Forces, and with the decision of the Executive to eliminate the Special Investigation Unit (UEI) of CONADI, also denying access to the archives held by the State, among other policy measures.
This is a significant area of concern, as it could affect the evidence needed to prosecute crimes against humanity committed during the last civil-military dictatorship, which are still ongoing to the present time. As an example of the possible prosecutions that could be affected, this documentation is essential in the investigation of crimes committed in the concentration camp of the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) -the largest of the period- and also in other causes in the province of Buenos Aires where the Army was involved in kidnappings, torture and enforced disappearances.
This situation is particularly serious if it is considered that the selection of what is ‘purged’ and what is not -which, according to a note sent by Captain Jorge Javier Raimondo, began on 9 January- is decided at the discretion of the AGA. This is the historically suspected area for the management of documentation from the period 1979-1983 and the creation of a Permanent Commission for the Study of Special Situations (COPESE), which, according to different organisations and people who survived the concentration camps, was dedicated to destroying evidence of repressive state action.
Due to this urgent need, the different lawyers in the trials for crimes against humanity have made submissions to stop the destruction and transportation of the documents. The first to proceed was the one headed by Pablo Llonto together with the prosecutor’s office of Miguel Blanco García Ordás, who requested measures of non-innovation in order to safeguard this documentation. The cautionary measure was granted by the Federal Court of San Martin in front of Dr. Alivia Vence, which prohibits ‘modifying, moving, altering and/or introducing changes and thus avoiding any manipulation that could alter or destroy – either totally or partially – this documentation that is linked to crimes against humanity’.
However, despite this early judicial response, it is extremely alarming that the irreversible purging work started last month, and probably a lot of documentation has been partly destroyed to date.
In this context, we consider that it is urgent and necessary that the State complies with the court order and guarantees the conservation of all documents in the possession of AGA, as well as all other documents of historical value in the possession of other areas of the State, either because they contain vital information for the institutional memory or because they are related to the periods of the greatest human rights violations in the country and the region. To do any other thing would seriously violate the rights of the victims, obstruct ongoing investigations and even impede future investigations, in violation of the country’s international commitments in the field of human rights.
We are concerned about this situation, in a context where the systematic attack on human rights policies by the government and the entire sector of the ruling party endangers processes that Argentina’s democracy has been implementing with commitment and has been an example in this area since the return of democracy more than 40 years ago.
At Fibgar, we believe that justice, memory and reparation are fundamental pillars for building equal and just communities, and we hope that these regressions will be reversed so that the nation can continue its process of democratic consolidation.
Federica Carnevale, FIBGAR collaborator.
