Obama sorry for U.S. policies during Argentina's 'dirty war'
Source: USA Today
President Obama Thursday visited a memorial in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to the thousands of people killed and disappeared during that country’s “dirty war,” on the 40th anniversary of the coup that started it. Obama used his visit to announce his plan to declassify new military and intelligence records that document the human rights violations from 1976 to 1983.
“There’s been controversy about the policies of the United States early in those dark days,” Obama said, standing beside the Argentinian President Mauricio Macri. “The United States when it reflects on what happened here has to reflect on its own past…. When we’re slow to speak out on human rights, which was the case here.”
Despite early U.S. support for the coup, Obama said U.S. diplomats, human rights workers and reporters played an important role in documenting the abuses that took place in the aftermath. He extolled the likes of diplomat Tex Harris, who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires during the administration of President Jimmy Carter to document human rights abuses and identify the disappeared. "Such men did so despite threats to themselves and their families," Obama said.
Documents from the administration of President Gerald Ford, who was in office during the 1976 coup, show that top U.S. officials knew of the impending coup and did little to stop it. On February 28, 1976, less than a month before the coup, Ambassador Robert Hill wrote the State Department with the good news that few Argentine politicians believed the United States was actively fomenting a coup. "Our stock with democratic civilian forces therefore remains high; but at same time our bridges to military are open," Hill wrote. After the coup, then-secretary of State Henry Kissinger said in a March 26, 1976, staff meeting that he wanted to encourage the new military leaders of Argentina. "I don’t want to give the sense that they’re harassed by the United States," Kissinger said.
Despite being a spot for runners, the atmosphere in this memorial is rather gloomy. The names of the “disappeared” during Argentina’s "dirty war" are listed on the sides of the walkways, on the bank of the Río de la Plata. The sculpture of a man stands in the middle of the river. It is a reference to the “death flights” – the military junta's practice of dropping alive opponents to the regime from aircraft or helicopters into the water.
Not all supported the timing of Obama's visit to Argentina however. “We reject Obama’s presence because he came to support [Macri's] government, which has found agreement with the ‘vulture funds’ and [has plunged the country into] a massive debt crisis,” says Gabriel Solano, Head of the Workers’ Party. Silvina Retrivi, a language professor, said, "Obama's visit represents Argentina's shift towards a neoliberal economy. It is paradoxical that Obama spoke to us in the Usina del Arte concert hall about health programs implemented in the U.S. when we could stop benefiting from our own health programs because of this neoliberal influence."
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/03/24/obama-speaks-us-role-argentinas-dirty-war/82206754/
It should be noted that it's Kissinger - not Obama - who should be apologizing. Here's footage from the event:
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