On the 45th anniversary of the civil-military coup, Felipe Solá held a commemorative ceremony on 23 March at the Palacio San Martín and along with Foreign Ministry officials, union workers and invitees participated in the “We Plant Memory” Campaign.
The Foreign Minister noted that this anniversary “helps us reflect not only on our tragic history and the tireless fight of human rights organizations against impunity, but also on our future prospects as a country. Peoples that forget are condemned to repeat history, but the Argentine people will not forget.”
“Just as other countries have experienced terrible wars, we have had that episode in our history, which is not the only one, but is the strongest one in terms of preparation and execution. In addition, the State, in an obscene and cowardly way, clearly revealed itself as a murderous State,” he added.
Accompanied by one of the grandsons recovered, Manuel Goncalves Granada, Solá stated that “one of the main goals established by President Alberto Fernández’ administration was to resume the consolidation of a State Policy in the human rights field which is based on a firm international commitment to defend fundamental rights. In that context, Argentina is one of the few countries in the world that has ratified all treaties of the Universal System for the protection of human rights, continuing with what former President Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín started when, just after democracy had been restored, he ratified the Pact of San Jose in a highly symbolic ceremony.”
He also highlighted the launching of the ‘Right to Identity’ International Campaign being conducted by the Foreign Ministry together with the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and the National Commission on the Right to Identity (CoNaDi) with the aim of supporting the search for grandsons and granddaughters that were abducted during the dictatorship, who might be living abroad.
Currently, the Foreign Ministry’s agenda includes the nomination of the ESMA Memory Site Museum as UNESCO World Heritage site, and it is working with France in the third campaign for the universalization of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance so that more States ratify it and 100 ratifications can be achieved by 2025.
Before the minister’s speech, and as part of the “We Plant Memory” campaign promoted by Human Rights organizations, a tree was planted at the Palacio San Martín “to keep building memory in Argentina and in every corner in the world in which there is a compatriot.” The campaign is aimed at planting trees, bushes, aromatic plants, succulents, seedlings, and seedling nurseries in order to grow 30,000 plants in memory of the 30,000 Detained-Disappeared.
The ceremony was also attended by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Pablo Tettamanti; the Chief of the Private Office of the Foreign Ministry, Guillermo Justo Chaves; the Secretary for the Malvinas Islands, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Daniel Filmus; the Secretary for Foreign Coordination and Planning, Martín Yañez; the Secretary for Worship, Guillermo Oliveri; the Undersecretary for Foreign Policy, Gustavo Dzugala; the Undersecretary for National Affairs, Fernando Asencio, the Undersecretary for Multilateral and Bilateral Economic Negotiations, Carola Ramón; the Head of White Helmets, Marina Cardelli; and the Director for Human Rights, Cecilia Meirovich.
