In Argentina, human rights organizations denounce the dismantling of policies to remember the dictatorship by the government of Javier Milei. Massive layoffs within the State Secretariat for Human Rights are affecting memory spaces and policies. Thursday, December 2, a mobilization took place in the former clandestine detention center of the former Naval Mechanics School (Esma), converted into a memory space, in Buenos Aires.
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With our correspondent in Buenos Aires, Théo Conscience
In front of the branch of the State Secretariat for Human Rights, within the ex-Esma memory space, police officers check the identity of the workers. Some learn they have been laid off and cannot access the building.
Melissa Hobert works for the Haroldo Conti Memory Cultural Center, located a few meters away. Three days ago, its employees learned by message that the center was going to be closed for a month, during restructuring, and that half of the staff was going to be laid off. “ In 2023, there would be a thousand civil servants at the State Secretariat for Human Rights, explains Melissa Hobert. At the end of 2024, there were only 800 left, and since December 31, there are 100 more people who would have been made redundant. »
These layoffs directly affect the functioning of spaces and policies of memory of the civil-military dictatorship. According to Paula Donadio, union delegate, the far-right government of Javier Milei seeks to transform the State Secretariat for Human Rights into an empty shell: “ The authorities do not recognize it, but all these dismissals clearly indicate that the government wants to dismantle the public policies ensured by the State Secretariat. »
Since his election a year ago, Javier Milei has promoted a historical rewriting of the years of lead in Argentinaand notably contests the toll of 30,000 forced disappearances during the dictatorship, established by memory organizations.