Villarruel promises to resume criminal proceedings against anti-junta guerrillas

Vice President Victoria Villarruel promised on Tuesday to reopen investigations into the deaths of left-wing guerrillas who fought against the Argentine military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.

The move sparked criticism from human rights groups who said the conservative politician was disregarding the “genocide” committed during the dark era.

Human rights groups estimate that 30,000 people disappeared during the military junta’s rule.

Villarruel, who comes from a military family and has close ties to the military and prisoners convicted of crimes against humanity, had previously questioned the number of missing people, claiming the true figure was closer to 8,700.

It supports the so-called “two demons theory,” which justifies the military regime’s violence by arguing that it was necessary to crack down on left-wing guerrilla groups that had not occupied any territory.

“Argentina deserves not to be a haven of impunity and to do so we must build on the foundations laid with justice,” said Villarruel, who is also president of the Senate.

“We will reopen all cases of victims of terrorism so that the justice system can do what it should have done over 20 years ago,” she continued.

“Argentina, our beloved homeland, can only experience its awakening, its rebirth in justice, with this courage,” added President’s deputy Javier Milei.

Villarruel added that “all Montoneros must be in prison,” referring to members of a left-wing guerrilla group formed in the 1970s under a previous military regime that proclaimed “national socialism” and was later crushed by the 1976-1983 junta.

“Only when the murderers are in prison can we, in unity and having fulfilled our duty, bring our beloved Argentina back on its feet,” she said.

Local news agencies reported that the reopening of such investigations would be carried out by the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales sobre el Terrorismo y sus Víctimas (CELTYV), a civil association founded by Villarruel.

Villarruel’s comments came during a ceremony in the Senate to “pay tribute to the victims of terrorism.” The ceremony was attended by relatives of victims of attacks carried out during the dictatorship and of the bombings of the Israeli embassy and the AMIA Jewish community center in 1992 and 1994 respectively.

Like President Milei, Villarruel argues that the junta’s violence was part of a “war” in which state forces committed “excesses” – a narrative that human rights experts describe as “denial.”

In her speech to the Senate, the Vice President demanded “the whole truth” and accused former Peronist presidents Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of “glorifying cruel terrorist crimes”.

HIJOS, a civil society group made up of children of the kidnapped and disappeared, said in a statement that it “rejects the vice president’s glorification of state terrorism.”

The NGO accused Villarruel of “the genocide” and “the crimes against humanity committed in more than 800 secret [detention] centers.”

The non-governmental organization Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) said that Villarruel “says that the armed organizations have got away scot-free, [but] they did not: their members were tortured and thrown into the sea.”

The dictatorship of Argentina was one of the most brutal among the numerous military regimes that spread terror in Latin America between the 1960s and 1980s.

In 1985, after the return to democracy, the country held a historic trial against the military juntas, in which their leaders were brought to justice.

Survivors reported a systematic plan to persecute and murder opposition leaders. Many of them were drugged in so-called “death flights” and thrown unconscious into the Río de la Plata.

After the amnesty laws were repealed in the mid-2000s, the Argentine justice system convicted more than 1,000 people in around 330 trials for crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship.

According to judicial data, dozens of cases are still ongoing, but they are hampered by the Milei government’s cuts in funding and obstruction of investigations.

On Wednesday morning, the Milei government tried to distance itself from Villarruel’s comments.

Sources from Casa Rosada, quoted by the Infobae website, stressed that the comments were made on the Vice President’s own initiative. “That is not our problem,” they said.

Villarruel’s speech came the same month that a group of deputies from her and Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza, visited inmates convicted of crimes against humanity in a prison in Ezeiza, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

WhatsApp messages from a party MP leaked earlier this week reveal that a group of libertarian MPs are working on a plan to release the criminals from prison.

Infobae reported on Tuesday that Villarruel’s association CELTYV would file a lawsuit with the courts “with the aim of making the victims visible, working for the recognition of their rights and making our contribution to the search for the historical truth.”

– TIME/AFP/NA