Chico Buarque, Silvio Rodríguez, and Joan Manuel Serrat ask for Dirty War denialist's resignation.

[forest444]

Renowned singer-songwriters Chico Buarque (Brazil), Silvio Rodríguez (Cuba), and Joan Manuel Serrat (Catalunya), issued a joint open letter yesterday demanding the resignation of the Minister of Culture for the City of Buenos Aires, Darío Lopérfido.

Lopérfido, appointed in December by the newly-elected Mayor of Buenos Aires Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, had recently denied the well-established fact that around 30,000 dissidents had been killed by Argentina's last military dictatorship during that country's Dirty War in the late 1970s. "That figure," he said, "was invented in order to sue the state for damages." This denialist posture is shared by many in the far-right PRO, which includes Lopérfido, Rodríguez Larreta, and President Mauricio Macri.

The city's Culture Minister added that "Argentina is a country with a violent past; but no more violent than in other countries in world history" and that the history of the Dirty War "is a Montoneros fable" in reference to the far-left extremist group whose terrorist activities in the mid 1970s was used to justify a fascist coup in 1976.

Buarque, Rodríguez, and Serrat joined 250 Argentine writers, actors, and artists - as well as the leading advocates for the disappeared, the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo - in repudiating Lopérfido's statements and in calling for his resignation. The Argentine open letter, issued on February 2, also criticized Lopérfido for dozens of layoffs at the city's Culture Ministry - a problem compounded by layoffs of 500 employees at the National Ministry of Culture (also based in Buenos Aires).

Their letter recalled as well that Lopérfido had also served as Culture Minister during the disastrous Fernándo de la Rúa administration, when scores of artists left Argentina for Spain and the United States amid the most ruinous economic crisis in modern Argentine history.

Lopérfido, a close personal friend of former President de la Rúa's son, was a leading member of the "sushi set" - the hedonistic entourage led by Antonio de la Rúa during his father's 1999-2001 administration. President de la Rúa, who was forced out of office by the December 2001 riots, was also known for his denialist stance and issued a decree banning extraditions of those charged with Dirty War-era human rights abuses just hours before fleeing by helicopter.

At: http://www.elciudadano.cl/2016/02/04/253832/joan-manuel-serrat-silvio-rodriguez-y-chico-buarque-se-suman-a-la-lista-de-artistas-que-piden-la-renuncia-de-un-funcionario-macrista/

And: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fhabituesdelteatrocolon.wordpress.com%2F2016%2F02%2F02%2Fms-de-250-artistas-y-el-pen-argentina-piden-la-renuncia-de-daro-loprfido-02-02-2016-la-nacion%2F

[backtomn]

1. It sounds more like......

......they are more angry about cuts to arts funding. The 30,000 number is the highest ever suggested. Even Chilean intelligence, no friend of Argentina, said 22,000. The also don't mention the approximately 6000 police, government officials, and civilians killed by the Montoneros.......or the many people that were killed by leftist groups that led to the military coup. Because of the deaths in the early 70's, caused by "friends" of Isabel Peron, the people of Argentina were begging for the coup. Pick up the movie "El Secreto de Sus Ojos (the original movie "The Secret in Their Eyes&quot , where you can get a little flavor of the time before the coup. There were more sinners than saints in the period of Argentine history.

[forest444]

2. Actually, the Dirty War began under Isabel Perón, who wanted left-wing extremists "annihilated"

while sponsoring the similarly murderous Argentine Anticommunist alliance. The coup, as Videla himself admitted, was done primarily at the behest of economic interests.

It's interesting that while endorsing Lopérfido's opinion that 30,000 Dirty War dead is a highly exaggerated figure, you yourself mention a figure for casualties of left-wing extremist violence (6,000) that is far in excess of what the terrorism victims' rights themselves acknowledge (1,355).

The estimate of 30,000 killed by government forces (which includes around 1,000 in Mrs. Perón's last year in office) is far from being a fanciful guess. It was originally calculated from not only official affidavits and testimony; but also from the abnormally high number of cremations at Chacarita Cemetery (the nation's largest) during the Dirty War years - to say nothing of the 8,000 disposed of in death flights, per the Navy's own admission. That both the Chacarita crematorium and death flights were used to dispose of the disappeared (as well as mass graves, of course) is an incontrovertible fact.

While the figure of 22,000 dead is valid, keep in mind that it was originally published in July 1978 - such that it necessarily excluded those killed during the remainder of the dictatorship (which lasted 5 more years, as you know).

Thanks for your reply and your insights.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Lopérfido's words quoted in this article alone condemn him, there is no question what he is.

How on earth would any civilized person want feral trash like this in government? Absolutely hideous. He does, however, appear to be very much the kind of person Macri would value above conscientious people. He surely meets Macri's "standards," doesn't he?

Someone needs to explain, somehow, to these fascists that they are supposed to serve the people of Argentina, rather than themselves when they take PUBLIC office.

[center]

Darío Lopérfido [/center]

[forest444]

4. Judi, it's already starting to look as though his new boss...

...will end up just like his old one.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Geez, they have identical sly, cunning, nasty smiles on their creepy faces, don't they?

From this spot, it surely looks that way.

(It's startling how many fascists in Latin American governments have had covert transactions with Israelis, like Colombia's use of an Israeli spy/fighter/etc. to train paramilitaries, Yair Klein:

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[/center]
A man who used to work all over the Americas as a UP correspondent has mentioned in conversations that Argentina's right-wing military has been active in anti-leftist activities throughout South America, etc. long AFTER the military dictatorship, as if they have a life of their own. They were also involved in training Contras, among other anti-left killers.

What a shame they have dug themselves in so well. It may take longer to disengage them than people realized.

[forest444]

8. The story behind those smirks is that Bibi has enlisted Macri to help derail Obama's Iran talks.

Primarily by using the 1994 AMIIA bombing to stoke anti-Iran animosity (never mind that the only forensic investigation ever conducted at the time made it clear that it was an inside job). That's why Macri recently fired the prosecutor (Juan Murray, who earned renown - and right-wing hatred - for his ability to solve Dirty War-era crimes) and his team, and replaced them not with another prosecutor, but with a political stooge (conservative UCR Senator Mario Cimadevilla).

Yair Klein is indeed arguably the most heinous Israeli operative ever to interfere in Latin America, having gained infamy for orchestrating the horrific Avianca flight 203 crash in 1989.

The case is also reminiscent of Mike Hariri, who, you'll recall, parlayed his post as Mossad's Latin America chief into a massive gun-and-drug running operation with Noriega and the Contras (with poppy Bush's blessing, naturally). Fit for a Hollywood script, these guys.

[Judi Lynn]

9. You've introduced information regarding Yair Klein I hadn't learned, yet.

So glad you have deep background knowledge in these areas. It really enhances the little I know already, and encourages me to keep reading as much as possible in the areas I value.

Thank you, forest444, for taking the time to share here.

[GGJohn]

10. Wow Judi, you're correct,

now maybe you can apply that to Ven. Pres. Maduro and his band of criminal thugs in the Ven. govt.?

[Ghost Dog]

5. Pues... Thanks for the information,

friends. Looking & learning, here.

Joder.

[forest444]

7. You're welcome as always, Ghost Dog.

Argentine history, you'll find, is like truth itself. Often dramatic, and stranger than fiction.