The triumph of Javier Milei not only generated surprise and fear in some sectors. There is a redoubt in which the news produced a wave of enthusiasm and even a peak of euphoria, “There were hugs, there were cries for freedom and threats against Kirchnerism”was leaked from the Penal Unit number 34 that works in the military garrison of Field of Maywhere more than 50 repressors of the last dictatorship are serving their sentences.
Those convicted or investigated for crimes against humanity are the majority of the 88 detainees in the San Miguel military unit which, for the Office of the Prosecutor for Crimes Against Humanity, is not a penitentiary establishment since it is a military headquarters under Army custody. Among those who are serving time there are the retired sub-inspector of the Federal Police and repressor of ESMA Mario Sandoval; the lieutenant colonel Jorge Héctor Di Pasquale; responsible for hundreds of disappearances and the murder of Laura Carlotto; the daughter of the president of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Carlotto’s Stele -author of the book Chronicle of a war denied-; and former Navy Intelligence officer, Jorge Luis Guarrochena, defendant in the current ESMA VII trial. There are also another 98 genocidal in common jails and 537 under house arrest.
From Campo de Mayo, the celebration spread to the sectors in which these genocidal people are considered “victims”, “political prisoners” and “forgotten heroes of the Homeland”. What excites the most in the denialist circuit is the figure of the deputy victoria villarruel, who achieved fame for her vindication of State Terrorism and who, in addition to being the vice-presidential candidate for La Libertad Avanza, in the last hours was appointed by Milei as her designated to be Minister of Security and Defense. An unofficially confirmed version indicates that this Monday, hours after the PASO, some of the repressors of the “vip prison” -as they are often called in the human rights movement- would have received messages from Villarruel in which he “stated to them that freedom for them was very close”.
That could not be sustained according to what the leader of La Libertad Avanza has said so far: although he adheres to the “theory of the two demons”, Milei assured that she would not pardon to those convicted of having kidnapped, tortured, disappeared, murdered, stolen babies and abused prisoners, among other crimes against humanity, during the last civic-ecclesiastical-military dictatorship.
Two Demons and a Super Vice President
The figure of the vice-presidential candidate grew on her defense of the genocidal, whom she considers “political prisoners victims of Kirchnerism.” In an eventual LLA government, Villarruel will occupy two ministries, in addition to the vice presidency: Internal Security and National Defense. This was confirmed by Milei in a recent interview, in which she defined her partner as “a capable person, but above all with courage.”
Villarruel is a lawyer and founded the Center for Legal Studies on Terrorism and its Victims (Celtyv), a space that insists on equating the State crimes of the last dictatorship with the actions of the guerrilla. In addition, they seek to promote the recognition of the people –military and civilians– who died in different guerrilla actions as victims of crimes against humanity, even contrary to the definition of that figure of international law. She is the daughter and niece of members of the Army and the Navy who participated in the dictatorship.
On July 23, some 20 days before the election that she won with 30 percent of the vote, Milei surprised and disappointed part of her electorate. “Keeping order (of the State) does not imply that you can do anything. If they committed crimes against humanity, they have to serve the sentence,” said the far-right candidate in a television interview with the journalist Rolando Grana. Beyond that definition –denied a pardon, said nothing about a possible amnesty–the Milei-Villarruel formula continues to be denialist.
According to Milei, between the 1970s and the 1980s the military had “terrorists on the other side who were making disasters, who did not fight according to military rules, they fought dirty”, who, “just as the victims on the side of the terrorists for abuses of the exercise of the military, there were also crimes against humanity on the part of the terrorists”. In addition, without further details, she implied that he would dedicate himself to investigating those facts.
A year ago, when he formalized Ricardo Bussison of the genocide Antonio Bus, like his bet for the governorship of Tucumán, a much more exalted Milei than his current version chicaned a local journalist who consulted him about his position regarding the disappeared. “Can you show me the list of the 30,000?” She hurried before accusing her of making “a one-eyed reading of history as the left does.”
Life, liberty and private property
The electoral platform that the space commanded by Milei and Villarruel presented to the Justice does not make a direct mention of crimes against humanity, the treatment that will be given to those responsible, the current trials or those to come, the causes that investigate the facts. Nor did the presidential candidate say anything specific in mid-July, when he broadcast a speech in which he explained that program via social networks.
The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights is one of those that would survive the chainsaw with which Milei would dismember the national State if he were to become president. However, in the reading that he carried out of his government plan, he maintained that he will eliminate “all the Cabinet Headquarters of ministries, secretariats and addresses that were created simply to place friends.”
Meanwhile, he announced a future judicial reform that “finally has the depoliticization of Justice and the defense of the fundamental rights of Argentines”: in his vision, these are life, liberty and private property. According to his proposal, the Justice portfolio will be in charge of “a respected member of the Judiciary”. He also mentioned “the appointment of a non-partisan Supreme Court judge” and of a “non-partisan prosecutor” as Attorney General.
Regarding the Armed Forces, he pointed out that “they will be revalued”. “A person who puts on an Argentine uniform is willing to give his life for us. They should be considered heroes and we should every day thank them for his service,” he read.
