Allies of dictatorship-era repressers in Argentina hail ‘winds of change’ if Macri is elected. [View all]

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A group created to battle against trials for dictatorship-era crimes against humanity says end of Kirchnerist era raises hopes.

"Justice and Concord" — a group created six years ago to wage battle against the trials of dictatorship-era torturers and their leaders — yesterday closed its annual meeting by honoring María Elena Vázquez de Astiz, an elderly woman who in 2013 was indicted with the appropriation of a child during the 1976-83 dictatorship. Her daughter, Lucrecia Astiz, stood up. With tears rolling down her cheeks, she told the group of lawyers: “I want to thank you for all your efforts. We couldn’t do it without you.”

Mrs. Astiz is, however, probably best known on account of her son: Alfredo Astiz, the young Navy officer with blonde hair and blue eyes who in the late 1970s operated as an undercover agent and abducted numerous members of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. They and other human rights organizations have long referred to him as "the angel of death."

For some, their tears were also of hope, as the former executive secretary of Justice and Concord, Mariano Gradín, said as he explained his decision to step down from his post; “there is a wind of change,” he said. Some of the participants laughed, because it was a clear nod to the "Let’s Change" coalition that nominated right-wing Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri; Macri is currently campaigning in a runoff with the ruling Victory Front (FpV) candidate Daniel Scioli.

“As there are winds of change, I will have to pave the way for the next generations,” Gradín added in a cheerful tone.

He was not the only one to smell that change is in the air. Take Ricardo Saint Jean — son of the late General Ibérico Saint Jean, the governor of Buenos Aires Province during the dictatorship who was himself indicted in 2007 for crimes against humanity (he died before sentencing). “For the first time in 12 years, we now have a ray of hope,” Saint Jean said in reference to the end of the Kirchnerist era. Saint Jean quoted the late dictator Jorge Rafael Videla: “We faced our worst moment with the Kirchners.”

“Much of our victory depends on our persistence. I urge you to raise the ante, not to leave our struggle until the rule of law is restored for everyone,” Saint Jean added, sitting next to the Alberto Solanet, who was confirmed yesterday as the head of Justice and Concord. Videla’s former lawyer, Alberto Rodríguez Varela, was also in agreement.

Their resentment against Kirchnerism and their progressive allies dates from the late former President Néstor Kirchner's first year in office in 2003, when he succeeded in having lawmakers declare null and void the Due Obedience and Full Stop Laws that prevented those who committed crimes during the 1976-83 military regime from being taken to court. Two years later, the Supreme Court ratified that decision, reopening the trials for crimes against humanity. Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricardo Lorenzetti has repeatedly stated that trials for dictatorship-era crimes are part of the Argentines’ social contract.

At: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/202716/allies-of-repressors-hail-%E2%80%98winds-of-change%E2%80%99
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The presence of General Ibérico Saint Jean's son in what was basically a Macri rally was especially appropriate, given that his father coined the dictatorship's unofficial credo:

"First we will kill all the subversives; then we will kill their collaborators; then their sympathizers; then those who remain indifferent; and finally we will kill the timid."