Catholic Church leads struggle against whitewashing of Argentinian dictatorship

Eduardo Campos Lima/Crux
January 18, 2025 at 4:00 pm



SÃO PAULO, Brazil – In Argentina, the Catholic Church is one of the most active institutions resisting President Javier Milei’s policy of dismantling efforts to memorialise the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983), according to a leading sociologist.

Over the past few months, the libertarian Milei has implemented several measures to reduce the social relevance of state institutions created since the 1980s to safeguard documents and historical items connected to the regime, which claimed at least 30,000 lives.

Even the number of victims of the military junta that seized control of the South American nation in 1976 has been continually challenged by Milei since his presidential campaign. He argues that fewer than a third of the traditionally estimated 30,000 victims were actually killed.

Milei’s administration’s attacks on the pillars of the policy of memory, truth, and justice are not only ideological – with a fierce denial of the crimes perpetrated by the regime – but also material.

Over the past few months, he has dismissed hundreds of state employees working in agencies connected to preserving the memory of the regime’s horrors, such as cultural centres and state archives.

More:
https://catholicherald.co.uk/catholic-church-leads-the-struggle-against-dismissing-memory-of-argentina-dictatorship/