 Welcome to what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean, a popular resistance broadcast of hot news out of the region. In partnership with Black Alliance for Peace, Haiti Americas team, Code Pink, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, Interreligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force on the Americas. We broadcast Thursdays at 4.30 p.m. Pacific, 7.30 p.m. Eastern, right here on YouTube live, including channels for the Convo Couch, Popular Resistance and Code Pink. Post broadcast recordings can be found at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Telegram, RadIndyMedia.com, and now under podcasts at PopularResistance.org. Our episode today, Argentina celebrates 40 years of democracy and human rights, and I'm really happy to share with all of you that we are broadcasting live today from Buenos Aires with our guest and my good friend Franco Metaza, who is the Director General for Foreign Affairs of the Argentina National Senate. And some of you may remember, he's joined us in previous episodes as well, specifically last August when there was that attempt on the Vice President's life. So I'm really happy to be here with all of you and Franco live in Buenos Aires. And I we're going to talk to you in this episode about last week's International Human Rights Forum. That is what brought me here and the significance of the forum and a few other events that passed last week. So let me give all of you just a brief background. Last week, Argentina celebrated 40 years of democracy and human rights by hosting the Third World Forum of Human Rights March 20 through March 24. The forum was scheduled in tandem with Argentina's National Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice. The forum closed with a march and rally on March 24, which marked 47 years since the US backed military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. That overthrow of the coup was on March 24, 1976. The US installed the bloodiest dictatorship in the history of Argentina that remained in power until 1983, hence the 40 years of democracy since. So with that, I want you all to to meet Franco. And why don't we start with what what the significance of the forum last week, what it is and and how it was created, because there's a really significant history to that. Okay, well, thanks for being here. I'm so thankful for the invitation. Well, the forum was so important for us. Every year, every March 24, it's very important and very significant for all our country because of what you mentioned in the introduction about the dictatorship and what that meant for the country. But this year, we could have this big forum. It was the third forum held. The first one was held in Brazil in 2013. The second one was held in Morocco in 2014. And then it it wasn't held anymore until now that we could organize it here in Buenos Aires. This is the third international forum. Since human rights is a flag of our country in general, and of our political party, the peronism in particular, we were very happy. And we had like 500 guests from all over the world. They are one of those. I'm honored to say one of those. There were four days of full of talks, debates, different events that made us think of what happened in our history, what are the situations nowadays with human rights, and what we should do towards future to keep human rights politics and to face the new challenges of the center. You know, for the audience, we should just explain that the forum that was well, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday with the final March and rally on Friday, the 24th. And we'll talk about the significance of having the final day of the forum on the 24th. But I mean, it was four days filled with events all day, some very formal. Some were walking and joined the conversation, but they were none of them were country specific. They were very much theme specific themes that apply not just to Latin America and the Caribbean, but across across the world, although many of the participants were Latin American and Caribbean, I was one of the few U.S. Indians. It was great to represent North America with several of them. But the themes ranged. Everything from lawfare was a great, great talk. Actually, Rafael Correa did a very good former president of Ecuador on lawfare and how that is being used as a form of golpe de salud, a form of coup. And there were women's rights and gender issues discussed and and original peoples. It was the military, how the military has taken over or I guess in many cases in the audience is really very much aware of this is how how the police have been militarized at a civilian level, so as not to use the national military against people was really just profound subjects that apply to everyone. If you're not careful, yeah, which I found really very significant. And as you said, coming here from Argentina, where, you know, you live years of a very bloody, very horrible dictatorship, it was one of the worst in the in the region. You know that on those years, what happened was what we call plan conduct, which nowadays we know it had a very very important participation of the United States in the strategy and the funding and funding and and the and the formation of the military. Yes, in the church or methods and stuff. And it was all over the region to the why. But the one in Argentina was the used the word bloodiest. And that's true. We have 30,000 disappear people. When we say disappear, we mean that and stuff not only disappear. And we also have and this happened in the ex-SMA for the audience to know that that was the main place where the forum to place. So this this site, so it's ex-SMA, E-S-M-A for the audience. This site, when Bronco was talking about the military training and financing by the state, that this site was the escuela de mecánico de la armada. So the mechanical school of the Navy. And it was turned into during the dictatorship, a prison, a torture center, execution center. A clandestine center of detention and execution. Yeah, clandestine center of detention and execution. We have a we had a lot of clandestine centers. This was one of the most important because it is huge. And there happened one of the words that was the appropriation of babies. 500 babies were born from mothers who were young activists, parents, activists. And they were pregnant at the moment of the of detention. Yeah. And the babies were born and they were to find they went to families of military families or colleagues or friends of military because the military the militaries said that that was the way of cutting the communism. They have the children raised in a different political environment. Oh, wow. Oh, my God. That's terrible. So the significance of the being the clandestine center that it was, it was the principal site used for last week's work. Yes. The happy thing about this is that in 2004, Mr. Kirchner was the president at those times and he took this center that was closed, almost abandoned and gave it to the human rights organisms to convert it in a memory space. And there was the human rights secretary and the mothers, the Plaza de Macho, the Plaza de Macho and the first have places to I see an office for the forensic anthropologists to the forensic anthropologists. So it's like we took it and we made a monument in human rights and human rights work. It's a very large campus, so to speak, or little buildings. But I really, the history behind it was so appropriate for having the forum principally housed. So there were other sites as well, but that was the principal site. What I really appreciated about that site was that it hasn't been significantly renovated. So when you walk under the property or walk into those buildings, you can sense something really evil happened there. It's not horrible today. But I think it's very appropriate that it wasn't just completely gutted and rebuilt and beautified. The history is still really beautiful. You can imagine what happened there. Yeah, you can. When you walk, you can imagine what happened there. Yeah, you can. And I think that's important that that's been, that remains, yeah. That's part of it. Yeah. And we had like, I don't know if I'm taking, but we had like 500 Kansas Times centers all around the country. Wow. That's a lot. For a population of what? At those times, 30 million people. We have, yeah, we have 40, 46 million now on 30 million at those times, I guess. Wow. So this is so significant that, that this forum was here last week because you have such a good history to share with the world. And your countrymen, the forensic anthropologists that a lot of our viewers will know, a lot of help in Guatemala there. And also all the activists and just for the audience, I think all of you know, because I've shared this with you when I went to Colombia during the Pato Nacional, it was with a team of Argentinian activists from here, from Buenos Aires, and when I went to Peru in February of this year, same. And I was the sole US and 20 Argentinians. But that's how significant the human rights were. Yeah. It's one of our flags. I always like to say that we are not an economic, what do you say? Like an economic engine or huge economic potential? Yeah, you know, United States is an economic, it's a military potential. We are not economic, we are military, but we are human rights potential. Yeah, most definitely, most definitely. Yeah. And the exportation of that whole philosophy is really a beautiful thing. Yeah, we work daily and hard to keep it on a daily thing. Yeah, on a daily. Wow, that's part of the culture. You can feel it just engaging with Argentinians on the street. People are really friendly here. You know, I anticipated everyone to be nice because I've traveled with Argentinians and everybody's like, people are really friendly. That human contact is really profound here and easy. There's an ease about it. That's really wonderful to be around. Thank you. You're self included. All of you. The last thing I want to mention about this week is that the last day, the 24th, we make a big march. 30,000 people. Yeah, the Plaza de Mayo. Well, Plaza de Mayo is the center of the march. We make every 24, all the society, all the political parties, all the organizations. And for the Plaza de Mayo for the audience, significance of that is that's where the abuelos, abuelas, grandmothers and grandfathers would protest. And so, yeah, it's significant that that's the location. Yeah, a protest that was very, very specific because it was a dictatorship. They were not allowed to make big demonstrations. So they used to walk around in circles around the pyramids of Mayo, that is like the monument, the principal monument of the Plaza de Mayo. And they used to walk in circles to that. That was the way of protesting. Well, most religious, very spiritual, very spiritual, very specific. And they became an icon of a specific protest. And they were invited from all over the world in the year of coming. So they could show in the international courts what was happening here. And the international pressure, the international pressure was to begin to end with this dictatorship process. So they made a great impact on the international community. You know, the walking in the circle as a form of quiet peaceful protest, that has been exported to many, many countries now, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is the form of protest that's been emulated across the hemisphere. Yeah, it's really, I've actually participated in a few of those in front of the Colombian embassy and the National Police Archive in Guatemala. Yeah, and I've seen it done in Guatemala too. Yeah, so it's pretty profound. Yes. Well, I was telling of the march, and I almost one million people gather in the Plaza de Mago. That's the principle, like events organized from my by the organizations of human rights. When I say organizations for human rights, I mean, Mother, the Plaza de Mago, Abuela, the Plaza de Mago, and Los Isos también, and the sons of the people as well. And we, particularly from La Campara, which is a regional youth agri-pacient, we walked from the S-Map, we did, to Plaza de Mago. They are 40 kilometers. It's like 10 miles. Yeah, eight, nine miles. Yeah, which was fabulous. It was eight hours because we were starting stuff and yeah, and it was a lot of celebrating along the way. It's our way to join the S-Map, the Palestine Center of Citation and Charter, with the Plaza de Mago and the main event. And we walk with happiness and thinking and fireworks. Yeah, it's our yearly demonstration of our way of organizing us and how we understand politics, that is, being in the street with what permits us. Yes, and this is something that we could just take a minute to share with the audience because this comes up in quite a few episodes, being with the people in the streets. And this, and this Marxist principle, young people. Yes, well, younger than me. But you, yeah. And what, being in the street, the significance of that, of the social movement building, the movement building, the political formation, building a political community, and then having a base to help develop candidates, keep that party in power from the ground up and send a message to the opposition that the people are behind the elected candidate, all of those things. And that was on full the sleigh on that march on Friday the 24th. And we, this is a theme that continues, you know, throughout our episodes, it's really the importance of social movement building. And political education, it's huge. And there, it is, there is no substitute for it. And it was Maximo Kershwer who did a great talk on the fallacy of presuming social media is, is political activism. He talked about that. And so, um, yeah, the social media is not, it cannot in any way replace the ground activism and the people, the people. Unless you are inscribing, it's like, fun in some way, because what they did, what she wanted to do is to cut the activism, the politics. And you have an all, all the opposite. Yeah, we are one of the most involved people in politics. Yeah. Yeah. In order to find out this kind of politics, involucration of youth around the world. No, no, so it's, no, and that's fine. It's really a testament to the whole political process here and the, and the culture since the dictatorship, because after such a horrible historic event, period of time, there, there is this tendency in cultures for each for that memory to dilute generation to generation, right? And that is not the case here. People are more powerful now than ever. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Well, I mean, we also have our, our issues. One of the events that happened on those week was the Christina Kishner talk with ex-presidents with Correa, Evo Morales from Bolivia, Ernesto Sampo from Bolivia, Rodríguez Zapatero from Spain. Yes, he was here. He also was here backing Upcurb. The conclusion we have is, okay, we are now in government. We have a democracy, but it's never a complete democracy. We also have a right and what's happening with Christina with all the law her that she's not, she has not the possibility of being a candidate for next election. They want to ban her. They are banning her. And the presidential elections are October this year. Yeah, we have in August, the primary. Yes. And in October 22nd, the general election. And what we are seeing is that the party, the opposition and the the sure is the, not the sure is the political. What do you say? The judicial. Yeah, I'm trying to. Yeah, power are trying to, to, to ban her. And it's the same that they did in Brazil with Lula. Yeah. He went to jail. So he cannot be a candidate. And if Lula was candidate Bolsonaro has not happened. Exactly. So they tried to change history. Yeah. So that's the will of the people. Yeah. The same with Valparra. So what that's what is happening here with Christina. And that's our main aim today. And we frame that now a human rights fight that is we want a complete democracy, not an incomplete one. And that means a democracy without prescriptions. Yeah, prescriptions of all forms. Yeah. Yeah, including lawfare and that that law, that lawfare talk was part of the group of the, the Pueblo. Yeah. Now that was profound. That was, yeah, some really profound statements came out of that that evening. So what else should we talk about? What else do you want to make sure the audience hears? Well, we are very happy with what we did this year. But we need to keep it going, to keep it going. And I would like the audience to, to say that be aware, keep track of what's going on in Argentina. We are really worried of what could happen if a right-wing government arrives to power. If a right government arrives to power because they had more votes, everything is okay. We are really worried of this prescription of the Pina prisoner. We are really worried about frauds, about cyber fraud, all that, about foreign, foreign intervention, so that that would be. Those are all that, you know, if we've seen, since when was that in Bolivia, October of 2020, all the way through to Brazil, last fall, presidential and legislative elections across the hemisphere. So this is one of the last ones. Yes. Mexico is going to be next year too, you know, hopefully no chance. But, you know, everything, the majority of the governments have changed to center left, whether they're progressive or revolutionary left. And so, we only need Ecuador and Uruguay now. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So we want to see Argentina keep that tide rolling. They are working on that. They are trying to enhance our democracy. The Peronese ones are really democratic and all the places where we get to, we make it through votes. We make it through votes. To the electoral process. Constitutional change. Always. Change, yeah. Which, yeah, hooray. I love you. I'm so happy that you're my friend. Yeah, so happy. Thank you for being here. I'm so thankful for your time. It was a pleasure. Terry, it was a pleasure. And well, you can come every time you want. Thank you. I'll take you up on that. So everyone, I just want to remind you, we've been watching what the F is going on in Latin America and the Caribbean, where a popular resistance broadcast, you can catch us every Thursday, 7.30 p.m. Eastern on Code Pink YouTube, the Convo Couch YouTube channel and popular resistance or YouTube and post-podcast recordings can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. So thank you, Franco. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. We'll see.