Thousands of Argentines marched through the streets of Buenos Aires and cities across the country for the National Day of Memory, Truth and Justice on Friday, in remembrance of the crimes against humanity committed by the last civic-military dictatorship, which seized power 47 years ago on March 24, 1976.

In the capital, social movements, human rights organizations and individuals marched down Avenida de Mayo from 3 p.m. to celebrate 40 years of democracy and commemorate the lives of those who were detained, tortured, disappeared, and murdered during the dictatorship.

A text co-authored by human rights organizations and read out on stage at the end of the march said: “The military were the executive arm of a coup by national and foreign corporations.” It added that there were “over 700 clandestine detention centers” where crimes against humanity were committed.

The crimes committed during the dictatorship included “enforced disappearances, sexual crimes, imprisonment, theft of babies, fear installed in militarized factories, and the propaganda of the corporate press that called massacres ‘confrontations’,” the document read. Rights organizations added that to date, there have been 1,115 convictions for crimes against humanity, 550 people stand accused of these crimes, and 20 people are fugitives.

“We will always continue to look after this democracy in Argentina and all of the Great Homeland (Patria Grande),” said Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo president Estela de Carlotto. “When we do this, we are honoring the memory of those who fought for a fair, free and sovereign homeland.”

De Carlotto also underscored the dictatorship’s acquisition of foreign debt and called for an end to hate speech and denialism.

After the event, Argentine metal bands played at the annual “Never Again Festival” event in Congress Square.

Before departing for the Dominican Republic to participate in the Ibero-American Summit, President Alberto Fernández tweeted: “Like every March 24, we embrace each other and march, valuing collective memory.”

Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said that “democracy is endangered when the concentration of the economy and of power increasingly deepens social equalities,” adding via social media: “Today, in streets and squares, hundreds of thousands are marching for Memory, Truth and Justice to defend Democracy and say Never Again to the Judicial Corporation.”

Buenos Aires mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, who announced last month that he would run for president with opposition coalition Juntos por el Cambio, said: “The desperation you feel when a loved one doesn’t appear. The impotence in the face of violence perpetrated by the dictatorship. March 24 is a day for remembering.”

He described the words “Never again”, taken on by Argentina to demand the country never return to dictatorship or the last dictatorship’s crimes against humanity, as “the last time that millions of Argentines agreed on something so profound”, adding that the demand “shows what we can achieve together”.

-Télam/Herald