50 years after its last coup, Argentina remembers painful legacy of dictatorship as Milei challenges narrative

[peppertree]

Last edited Tue Mar 24, 2026, 06:11 PM - Edit history (1)

In Argentina, March 24 is a day of mourning, marches and political disputes.

Fifty years after the coup d’état that brought the last military junta to power, tens of thousands of people once again took to the streets this Tuesday to remember the victims of a dictatorship that far-right President Javier Milei is seeking to reinterpret.

Under the slogan Nunca más (“Never again”), which marked generations, human rights organisations, trade unions and social advocacy groups gathered for their annual march, carrying photos of the disappeared in a large demonstration in Buenos Aires that converged on the famous Plaza de Mayo.

Human rights organisations estimate that 30,000 people were disappeared during the dictatorship, mostly between 1976 and 1978. The Argentine government acknowledged 8,961 in a 1984 report - triggering a debate that rages to this day.

Milei's Human Rights Secretary, Alberto Baños, dismissed the 30,000 figure as “false” last November - a sentiment publicly shared by Milei, Vice President Victoria Villarruel, and Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona.

Declassified files show that dictatorship officials themselves acknowledged “22,000 dead” in a July 1978 cable to their Chilean counterparts.

An estimated 500 infants and children were likewise abducted at the time - many for adoption by pro-regime families. Some 140 have thus far had their true identities restored - mainly thanks to the efforts of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which 95 year-old Estela Barnes de Carlotto still leads.

Since the 1987 amnesty laws that benefitted members of the armed forces were struck down in 2003, 1,231 defendants have been convicted of crimes against humanity.

At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/amp/argentina/argentina-remembers-dictatorship-victims-as-milei-challenges-narrative.phtml

Argentina commemorates the 50th anniversary of the country's last military coup.

Though the fascist, 1976-83 dictatorship is repudiated by 7 out of 10 Argentines, its still-sizable number of apologists include many in President Javier Milei's far-right administration.

But besides its infamous Dirty War against dissidents, historians also point to the ruinous economic legacy of the last dictatorship, under which the country's foreign debt ballooned five-fold to $45 billion - which foreign speculators and the country's own elites largely used to dollarize and offshore local assets, leaving Argentina “the richest poor country in the world.”

The resulting hard-currency shortage has led to sputtering GDP growth averaging just 1.6% over the past 50 years (compared to 2.7% for the U.S.), and soaring poverty as real wages faltered and housing leapt out of reach for millions after the country's landmark National Mortgage Bank program was defunded in 1977.

[enid602]

1. Falklands

Remember that when the Dictadura fell in ‘83, they had just been slaughtered by the Brits in the Falklands, after fighting a needless and poorly executed war. Maybe there’s some hope for us.

[peppertree]

2. Absolutely. I sometimes refer to Trump as "America's Galtieri."

Like Cheeto, Galtieri was a murderous, elitist and bigoted psychopath who was well-liked by local Archie Bunker types on account of his talent for "looking and sounding like the common man" (unlike the stodgy, slick-haired figures that dominated the last dictatorship).

Galtieri was also quick to impose crushing austerity on his countrymen - while splurging on the country's already-wasteful military, and making sure elites could dollarize and offshore every asset they could claw at.

Besides ruining Argentina's (already-frayed) international standing with the Falklands War, he helped deepen the economic ruin already very much in full swing.

Argentina in 1980-82, was - economically - like having Bush transition straight to Trump, with no Obama or Biden in the middle.

He died at 76 of pancreatic cancer- likely brought about by decades of heavy drinking. He was also known for his fondness for young women (though maybe not quite that young).

One such young woman - a college-aged girl - testified to the time Galtieri visited her in her cell, and purred: "You live because I want you to live; you remind me of my daughter."

Galtieri was in fact Reagan-era Republicans' favorite Argentine official (especially Jesse Helms') - until the invasion.

Even then - Maggie had a hard time convincing Helms to quit his favorite Argentine.

[enid602]

3. Trump

Trump’s already lost our bases, CIA offices, Embassies and Consulates in the Gulf region. He’s probably lost many of our Gulf allies, and European Allies as well. Trump might take note that Galtieri is probably the only Argentinian leader that has no buildings, streets and monuments named after him,

[peppertree]

4. Well - that's one ignominy that Cheeto seems determined to avoid: having nothing named in his honor

To my knowledge (my parents are Argentine), there's nothing in Argentina named after any dictatorship official - though Milei would certainly change that if he could.

His ideological predecessor - neo-liberal blowhard Álvaro Alsogaray - pushed in the 1990s to have a monument erected in memory of the officers who actively participated in the atrocities (whom he called "heroes" ).

His daughter - famously - became the first Argentine federal official to have been convicted of corruption, for, at the time, embezzling $200 million in funds meant to clean up the then India-like Riachuelo River (south of Buenos Aires).

It's much cleaner now - though still far short of her 1993 pledge to make it "drinkable."

Dictatorship policies, ironically, aided the then-sludgy Riachuelo - by simply forcing so many factories along its banks to go under.

The combination of depressed real wages and unrestricted imports made survival impossible for many - a recipe being rehashed by Trump's little narco pal Milei.

Cry for Argentina.

[enid602]

5. BA

But that’s the beauty of BA. When you drive along the Riachuelo, you approach the Puente Valentin Alsina, perhaps the most fanciful and beautiful example of Argentine Colonial architecture. At least in Lanús.

‘La capital de un imperio que nunca existió.’

[peppertree]

6. That it is.

Never visited that section of the city - but have always liked that landmark you mentioned.

You'll be happy to know they restored that bridge a few years ago.

[enid602]

7. 👍

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍