Deputy Lourdes Arrieta of ruling coalition La Libertad Avanza (LLA) has said she did not know who dictatorship-era repressors were when she and other lawmakers from her bloc visited them in jail. The Lower House lawmaker claimed she was “tricked.”
“I had to google them when I left the prison to know who they were,” she told Noticiero 9. “I absolutely repudiate them because they are part of Argentina’s dark history.”
Two weeks ago, six LLA deputies sparked an outcry after it emerged that they had visited several former military officials in Ezeiza federal prison. The men are serving life sentences for crimes against humanity committed during the dictatorship. The visit was organized by Deputy Beltrán Benedit. According to Arrieta, it was initially framed as a “humanitarian” and “institutional” visit to inmates to learn about their living and health conditions.
“We were tricked into going,” she said, referring to herself and fellow lawmaker Rocío Bonacci. “I feel cheated by the deputy who organized the visit.”
The group of repressors they visited included Alfredo Astiz, Carlos Suárez Mason, Raúl Guglielminetti, Antonio Pernías and Adolfo Donda.
Astiz, known as “the Angel of Death,” is one of the deadliest and most feared repressors of the last dictatorship. Arrieta confirmed to MDZ Radio that she and the other deputies had met with him.
Asked how she didn’t know it was Astiz, she said: “How could I have known, if I was born in 1993? I didn’t live through those times. I have no idea who the figures from that time were. I just saw some 80-year old inmates. I didn’t know their names, I didn’t recognize their faces.”
“It’s not a justification, it’s just the truth,” Arrieta said, adding that she will vote in favor of a proposal from Peronist and left-wing deputies to evaluate the lawmakers’ misconduct and potentially vote for them to be removed from the Lower House.
By Arrieta’s account, the deputies sat with the torturers and spoke with them. Arrieta and Bonacci decided to leave when the latter started to feel uncomfortable. After learning who they had visited, they felt “distressed” and “shocked.”
Sources from LLA initially said Bonacci had refused to leave the Lower Hosue car in which they were driven there when she realized the purpose of the visit. Arrieta’s comments refute this version. She added that “no visit is carried out if it’s not approved first” and that all the bloc’s deputies knew about it, including leader Gabriel Bornoroni, because Benedit sent the invitation in a general group chat.
Members of the government have distanced themselves from the situation when asked about it. Lower House President Martín Menem, whom Arrieta answers to politically, said neither he, the government, nor LLA as a party agreed with the visit. He described the visit as part of the deputies’ “personal agenda.”
“I wouldn’t have done it,” said President Javier Milei. Asked by the Herald, Communications Secretary Eduardo Serenellini said it was “in the past” and that there would be no further official comments on it.