President Obama on Thursday recognized the role of the US government in Argentina’s Dirty War, a campaign of violence waged for seven years against tens of thousands of Argentine leftists after a 1976 coup d’etat.
During a visit to Buenos Aires, Obama paid tribute victims killed and disappeared by the junta alongside Argentine President Mauricio Macri, at a monument alongside the River Plata.
“Democracies have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don’t live up to the ideals that we stand for,” he said. “And we’ve been slow to speak out for human rights and that was the case here.” Obama did not explicitly apologize for the US role in the affair.
The memorial where Obama and Macri paid their respects, built in 1997, is called the Monument to the Victims of State Terrorism. ABC News described it as “a long wall — similar to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC.” It noted that the monument is “inscribed with 20,000 names and ages of victims” and has “[a]n additional 10,000 empty plaques represent[ing] victims who have not yet been identified.”
The official recognition came amid a promise by the administration to declassify documents shedding additional light on the US support for Argentina’s military dictatorship. National Security Adviser Susan Rice announced last week that the US would use the occasion of President Obama’s visit to get the ball rolling on declassification.
The New York Times noted that, before the announcement, there had been additional pressure from Argentine human rights groups to start this disclosure process, after they “noted that Mr. Obama would be in Argentina on the painful anniversary [of the 1976 coup].”
“On this anniversary and beyond, we’re determined to do our part as Argentina continues to heal and move forward as one nation,” Rice said. She had also noted that declassification would bring to the fore military and intelligence files “for the first time.”
Some key details about US involvement in Argentina’s Dirty War have…