Milei appoints interventor at the University of the Mothers of May

In yet another act of attack on memory and education, Javier Milei appointed, last Thursday (25/07), a federal interventor at the National University of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (UNMa), opening a dangerous precedent that could be used at the UBA and other Argentine public universities.

By Bruno Falci, from Buenos Aires, for the Portal O Cafezinho

This measure is in line with the far-right government of Argentina’s admiration for the military dictatorship (1976-1983), which kidnapped, disappeared, tortured and murdered more than 30,000 people.

The Mothers marched in their traditional act that has taken place every Thursday for 47 years, in front of the Casa Rosada, the seat of the executive branch, where they still search for their children who disappeared under the military regime.

In a statement, the Association of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo reported that the Milei government ordered the illegal intervention of UNMa. The Ministry of Human Capital announced the dismissal of the current rector, Cristina Caamaño, elected by the Sovereign Assembly of the University last March, and appointed Eduardo Luis Maurizzio, a historical denier and admirer of the military regime, in her place. For several months, the government has also been undertaking a brutal campaign of budget cuts at UNMa and at all public universities in Argentina.

Several months ago, the government also made brutal budget cuts to UNMa and all public universities in Argentina. Protests against the government continue to occur and Milei responds with repression and illegal arrests.

The authorities of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Association have assured that this is an “illegal intervention” by the “fascist, denialist government that defends the genocidal dictatorship” and have assured that they will resist “this fraudulent and illegitimate action together with the entire community of our University”. Since Milei arrived at La Rosada, the institution has not received a single budgetary change.

UNMa manifests itself

“We repudiate the illegal appointment of a ‘normalizing Rector’ that the Milei government is trying to impose, ignoring the normalization process that our University has already carried out, and of which Cristina Caamaño is its Rector. After emptying our institution for 7 months, they now intend to intervene by subjugating university autonomy. We call on the entire community to join us in this rejection and to march in repudiation this afternoon alongside the Mothers in the Square.”

Human Capital is the ministry that does not distribute thousands of tons of food to community kitchens, despite existing court decisions – it is the ministry that ordered the intervention.
This is not the first time that the National University of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo has faced an intervention. Interestingly, the first time was during the government of Mauricio Macri, when it was still a university institute. Now, with Javier Milei in the Casa Rosada, the Ministry of Human Capital has announced a new intervention.

This is not the first time that the National University of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo has faced an intervention. Interestingly, the first time was during the government of Mauricio Macri, when it was still a university institute. Now, with Javier Milei in the Casa Rosada, the Ministry of Human Capital has announced a new intervention.

In 2017, during the Macri administration, a similar situation occurred. On that occasion, the heads of the Ministries of Justice and Education, Germán Garavano and Esteba Bullrich, respectively, signed the resolution that dismissed the then organizing rector, Germán Ibañez, and appointed the former auditor and misdemeanor judge of INADI, Javier Alejandro Buján. At that time, the academic community and students peacefully occupied the institution’s headquarters. Now, the Madres’ statement states that they will prevent the university from intervening because “the example of our children guides us and their struggle led us to create it.”

Memory, truth and justice

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an Argentine association formed in 1977, during the dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla, with the aim of initially recovering disappeared detainees alive, and then establishing those responsible for crimes against humanity and promoting their prosecution.
The University is the fruit of these ideals in defense of Human Rights, memory, truth and justice, humanist and democratic slogans of the movement, which was born from the attempts of several Argentine mothers to find their children who “disappeared” during the military dictatorship (1976-1983). During this period, the regime kidnapped, tortured and killed thousands of political opponents, taking the children born to prisoners from their mothers and eliminating any trace of its victims.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo began meeting in the square of the same name in Buenos Aires on Saturday, April 30, 1977. They used the place as a meeting point to organize themselves and present petitions to the authorities for their missing children. At first they remained seated, but when a state of siege was declared, the police expelled them from the place. Later, to identify themselves as a group during the Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Luján in October 1977, they decided to wear a white headscarf. Thus came the two symbols that represent them: the marches every Thursday at 3:30 in the afternoon around the Pyramid of May, which is located in the center of the square, and the white headscarf.