President Barack Obama yesterday paid homage to victims of Argentina’s former US-backed dictatorship, admitting the US was “slow to speak out for human rights” in those dark days.
Obama became the first US president to formally acknowledge the victims of the 1976-1983 military regime, which declassified documents have revealed was supported by top US officials.
“There’s been controversy about the policies of the US early in those dark days,” Obama said in a speech at the Memory Park monument in Buenos Aires.
The US “has to examine its own policies as well, and its own past,” he added. “We’ve been slow to speak out for human rights, and that was the case here.”
Alongside Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri, Obama tossed white roses into the River Plate in memory of those executed by the regime by being hurled from airplanes into the water in so-called “death flights.”
Obama’s visit to Argentina coincided with the 40th anniversary of a right-wing military coup which ushered in the dictatorship.
Victims’ groups had been angered by the choice of the date for Obama’s visit, given the US support for the coup at the time.
But they welcomed his promise to declassify further documents to shed more light on the fates of victims of the regime.
Paying tribute to victims’ families, Obama reprised a historic phrase from the 1985 trial of Argentina’s dictators, that “never again” (“nunca mas”) must dictators prevail.
“To those families, your relentlessness, your determination has made a difference. You’ve driven Argentina’s remarkable efforts to hold responsible those who perpetrated these crimes,” he said.
“You are the ones who ensure that the past is remembered and the promise of ‘nunca mas’ is finally fulfilled.”
During his visit, Obama has tried to present a softer side of US power in Latin America.
On Wednesday, he joked about tasting Argentina’s national beverage mate for the first time and about trying to meet football superstar Lionel Messi.
He even had a go at tango with dancer Mora Godoy at a state dinner, while First Lady Michelle Obama gave it a whirl with dancer Jose Lugones.
But the troubled history of US involvement in the region reared its head yesterday.
In 2002, Washington declassified 4,000 diplomatic cables which showed US officials, including then-secretary of state Henry Kissinger, encouraged the Argentine junta’s purge of leftists.
In a strategic gesture, Obama agreed ahead of his visit to declassify other sensitive military and intelligence records linked to the “dirty war.”
They may shed more light on US involvement in “Operation Condor,” a plan among secret police agencies across the Southern Cone to target communists, leftists and dissidents.
“Prior US government releases have detailed human rights abuses and US policymaking in Chile, Guatemala, El Salvador,” said Carlos Osorio at the National Security Archive.
Macri had asked for the further documents to be released. “We all need and we are entitled to know what the truth is,” he said.
Obama is on his first visit to Argentina, hoping to nurture a new regional ally.
He praised Macri, in office since December, as a “man in a hurry” to create jobs and mend the economy.
The White House is keen to put Argentina on a firmer financial footing and create a new ally in the region.
Macri won elections in November, ending 12 years of crisis-ridden leftist rule by the late Nestor Kirchner and his wife Cristina who had combative political relations with Washington.
Obama on Wednesday praised Macri’s “constructive approach” in reaching a deal with US creditors to settle debts dating to Argentina’s financial crisis in 2002.
He said it had led to the “possibility of a resolution” that could let Argentina back into international financial markets.
After the memorial ceremony yesterday the Obamas flew to the Andean resort town of Bariloche for a few hours’ leisure time.