Macron pays tribute to two French nuns murdered by the Argentine dictatorship

▲ The French president, Emmanuel Macron, greeted relatives of victims of the Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983), in the Church of the Holy Cross, in Buenos Aires.Photo Afp

Stella Calloni

Correspondent

La Jornada Newspaper
Monday, November 18, 2024, p. 24

Buenos Aires., The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, who arrived in Buenos Aires together with his wife, Briggite, visited yesterday morning the emblematic church of the Holy Cross, where he paid tribute to the nuns Leonie Duquet and Alice Domon, kidnapped with three founding mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and five other victims who disappeared during the military dictatorship (1976-1983), accompanied by family members and the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

A wreath was placed in the part of the garden that surrounds the church and where the ashes of Duquet are, the mothers Azucena Villaflor, Esther Ballestrino de Careaga and María Ponce de Bianco, detained, tortured and murdered on December 8, 1977, whose bodies were found years later – they were buried as NN – in towns on the Atlantic coast by neighbors and who were only identified in 2004 by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team.

Both Pérez Esquivel and relatives of the mothers, including Ana María Careaga, spoke with Macron, whose wife, Briggite, seemed very emotional.

Careaga explained to the president the human rights policy of the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, the surviving victims and the relatives of Truth, Memory and Justice, who found a creative method of struggle and formed a civilizational pact and they achieved the conviction of the material authors in fair trials for the crimes against humanity they committed.

Relatives of victims also expressed their concern about the attempt to dismantle clandestine detention and extermination centers, and other measures that would imply an enormous setback.

Deputies from the ruling La Libertad Avanza (LLA) are trying to free those convicted of these crimes and visited them in the Ezeiza prison. At the head of the detainees was the former captain of the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) Alfredo Astiz, who, at a very young age, infiltrated the mothers’ meetings in 1977, posing as a victim, and on December 8, That year he pointed out with a kiss the mothers and other people who were kidnapped and disappeared by his companions from the criminal group Tarea de la Armada, who tortured them, and then, still alive, threw them into the sea in the flights of death.

The visit to the church was organized by the French ambassador to Argentina, Romain Nadal, and analysts consider that Macron’s presence there is a message for the relatives and the struggles to maintain memory, truth and justice. who are under intense attack from the current far-right government.

Later, President Javier Milei met with Macron at the Casa Rosada, relatives and friends of missing French people arrived with signs written in their language demanding the Argentine president stop attacking human rights organizations.

During the meeting between both leaders, differences were made clear on issues such as climate change, which Milei attributes to a construction of the leftdenying warnings about environmental destruction.

Macron maintained that he made it clear to his Argentine counterpart that his government will not sign the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur as is and asked to renegotiate it until a framework acceptable to all parties is found. He said he had found that there are several countries of the South American bloc who are not satisfied with this pact.”

Milei openly disagrees with the agreement and with the functioning of Mercosur, in a position decidedly contrary to the majority of Latin American countries.

Macron’s concern is that the agreement with Mercosur will be very bad for France and for our agricultureshowing concern about the arrival of meat treated with hormones and antibiotics, and other products that they do not respect the same criteria Europeans.

The French president also spoke with Milei about possible investments in lithium exploitation, progress in defense contracts, and their differences. In turn, Milei would have confirmed the possibility of abandoning the Paris Climate Agreement.