BUENOS AIRES (CN) — Every March 24, Argentina recalls the beginning of the most painful chapter in its modern history. On that day in 1976, a military coup brought a brutal dictatorship to power that killed and forcibly “disappeared” as many as 30,000 citizens during its seven-year reign.
On Sunday, the anniversary — a national holiday known as the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice — took on heightened meaning: It was the first March 24 during the presidency of radical libertarian Javier Milei, who frequently casts doubt on the dictatorship’s severity and denies expert estimates of how many lives the military junta took.
As tens of thousands gathered in downtown Buenos Aires for the annual Day of Remembrance march, holding banners that read “nunca mas,” or never again, Milei broadcast his own message about the dictatorship. In a 13-minute video posted to presidential social media channels Sunday morning, the administration called for a “complete” remembrance, reframing the violence as a natural symptom of “war” and calling attention to victims of left-wing guerilla violence before the coup.
“On both sides, we were fighting for liberty and we were fighting for the homeland,” says a former leftist militant in the video, who describes a conflict between “two fallen angels.” The video also features a former intelligence officer and the daughter of a military captain who was killed, along with one of his daughters, by guerilla fighters in 1974.
The ensemble demands justice for the victims of guerilla violence before the junta came to power, and falsely dismisses 30,000 — a widely accepted estimate by human rights experts of the number of people forcibly disappeared during the dictatorship — as a made-up money grab.
As the video made rounds online, hundreds of thousands flooded the famed Plaza de Mayo and surrounding avenues, banging drums and yelling chants likening Milei and his vice president, Victoria Villarruel, to the junta. Before pivoting into politics in 2021, Villarruel was a fringe activist who pushed denialist conspiracies about the dictatorship and was known for visiting former junta leader Jorge Rafael Videla in prison.
Speaking before the crowded plaza, human rights icon Estela Barnes de Carlotto criticized the “constant conspiracies of Milei and Villarruel’s government.” Carlotto, 93, oversees the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group dedicated to identifying children who were stolen from their mothers and illegally adopted during the dictatorship.
“We continue demanding to know where the bodies of the disappeared are,” she said.
Claudia Estequín, a 55-year-old factory worker, has attended the annual remembrance march for over a decade. Taking in her surroundings on 9 de Julio Avenue, she noted that turnout seemed greater this year. “I think people are upset by this administration’s denialism,” she said. “And that made more people show up, with more strength.”
Martín Centurión, 28, has attended the march for as long as he can remember. On Sunday, he said it felt especially necessary. “It’s really important to be here, particularly today, with the president and the vice president we have,” he says. “The video they posted today is an utter embarrassment.”
That controversial video was not Milei’s first attempt to reframe Argentina’s traumatic history. In a presidential debate last November ahead of his electoral triumph, Milei said that “it wasn’t 30,000 disappeared, it was 8,753,” referencing a number that comes from an investigation into the dictatorship published in 1984, just a year after democracy was reinstated.
Experts widely agree that figure is a dramatic underestimate due to the secretive nature of the junta's killings and their methods for disposing of bodies, which included throwing them off airplanes and into the ocean.
“We’re absolutely opposed to a one-eyed version of history,” Milei continued. “For us, during the ‘70s, there was a war. During that war, the state committed excesses.”
That same month, then-vice presidential candidate Villarruel criticized the existence of a memorial museum at the Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy, commonly referred to by its Spanish acronym, ESMA. Initially a school for navy officers, the junta transformed the ESMA into a clandestine detention center during the dictatorship, torturing and killing over 5,000 people there.
In 2004, during the presidency of Néstor Kirchner, Congress passed a law transforming the ESMA complex into a museum. Last year, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Speaking in a televised interview last November, Villarruel expressed her desire to dismantle the museum. “Those are 42 acres that could be enjoyed by all Argentines, especially because at the time they were supposed to be for schools, and what we need the most are schools,” she said.
Patricia Hanono, a 70-year-old psychologist who marched on Sunday, said she was there to show that “not everyone supports denialism, even if this guy was elected into power.” She also wanted to honor the members of her generation who couldn’t be there.
“My generation was a fighting generation,” Hanono said. “There are many young people from that time who would be old now, but were disappeared. Many peers, many friends. So I need to come pay tribute to them, too.”
“And,” she added, “it was 30,000.”
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