French President François Hollande joins Estela Carlotto in tribute to Argentine Dirty War victims. [View all]

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Last edited Thu Feb 25, 2016, 10:13 PM - Edit history (1)

President François Hollande today took part in a memorial ceremony at the former Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) memorial, the site of 5,000 Dirty War era deaths and the most infamous clandestine detention center operated during Argentina’s 1976-83 civil-military dictatorship. The French leader was joined by the President of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, Estela Barnes de Carlotto, and the Mayor of Buenos Aires Horacio Rodríguez Larreta.

President Hollande made some brief statements to the press highlighting the efforts made by “men and women who have looked for their sons and grandchildren for so many years,” referring to role played by the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo in the search of their sons and grandchildren who were kidnapped (and in many cases killed) by the military forces during the country’s darkest period.

Hollande concluded the memorial by throwing flowers onto the Río de la Plata from the Memorial Park; an estimated 8,000 victims were thrown alive from military aircraft over the bay from 1976 to 1978. He recalled that “France was also affected” by the brutal dictatorship as 22 victims were French nationals. He said that France “was aware that in Argentina a mass crime had been committed.”

Hollande warned that “barbarity never ends,” praising the significance of the ESMA memorial so that “the whole world knows what a dictatorship has been.”

At: http://buenosairesherald.com/article/209493/hollande-at-esma-memorial-france-aware-mass-crime-committed-in-argentina-

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President Hollande at Buenos Aires' Memorial Park with mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Argentine President Mauricio Macri, a sympathizer of the dictatorship, did not attend.[/center]