a faithful heir to his genocidal father

On Saturday, in the middle of the long weekend, through the account X of the call Office of the President the Government of Javier Miley announced who will replace Patricia Bullrich y Luis Petri in the ministries of “National Security” and Defense. As is known, these will assume their seats in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, respectively, on December 10.

The repressive minister will be succeeded by her current Secretary of Security, the woman from Córdoba. Alejandra Monteolivawho had taken over in the middle of last year after Bullrich expel Vicente Ventura Barreiro. This, according to the official version, had tried to “interfere” in a food tender for the Federal Penitentiary Service. Since he did it behind his boss’s back, he paid dearly for the stoking.

The Daily Left He already told you who Alejandra Monteoliva is. In his record they appear from direct participation in the failed Plan Colombia from the 90s (thousands of dead and missing without major achievements in the “war against drug trafficking”), until the collaboration with the bloodthirsty government of Nayib Bukele from El Salvador; going through the mismanagement and lack of control of the Córdoba Police under the government of Jose de la Sota.

Less showy is the career of the lieutenant general Carlos Alberto Prestiwho at 59 years old will occupy the most important office in the Liberator Building replacing the brand new deputy from Mendoza. The large journalistic companies focused on the “historical” fact that a military man assumed the Defense portfolio instead of a civilian, something that had not happened since the end of the dictatorship. On this aspect, opinions are diverse and transversal.

There are reactionary militarists, many aligned with Victoria Villarruelwho believe it is wrong that a member of the Armed forces Cross the counter and go to conduct them from the Executive Branch. And there are characters referenced with the government of Cristina Kirchner who today applaud the decision of mercy. One of them is the retired general César Santos Gerardo del Corazón de Jesús Milaniwho actively participated in the genocidal dictatorship and was head of the Army from 2013 to 2015. For him, appointing a military man to head the Defense “is a decision that Peronism should have made decades ago.”

Beyond this debate and what national “defense” project the new minister would embody, there is almost no talk of the commitment of Priest with what was done by Armed forces in it genocide executed between the mid-70s and early 80s. Not because he personally kidnapped, tortured, shot or made people disappear (he entered the Military College the dictatorship is over), but because of how took charge of that atrocious inheritance.

Recycled camouflage

The announcement of the Office of the President qualify a Priest as someone with an “impeccable military career.” For PetriIn addition, his successor exudes “ability, commitment and loyalty to the Homeland.” And they add that, with his appointment, the government of Freedom Advances seeks to inaugurate “a tradition” of military ministers “ending (sic) the demonization of our officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers.” Coming from an Executive Branch populated by deniers and advocates of crimes against humanity, there is little to add.

Behind him genocidal process and the humiliating defeat in Malvinassince 1983 all governments sought “reconcile” at Armed forces with society. In a double game, sometimes more explicit and other times more camouflaged, they sought to relegitimize the Army, the Navy and the Air Force as institutions at the service of the “Homeland.” Converting trash dumps into places of Memory and accepting that a handful of emblematic genocidaires went to prison, No administration failed to preserve the repressive apparatus as a whole.. Ready to use again when required. Not without internal crises, the bourgeois class has a strategic vision in this support.

In this context, Lieutenant General Priest seems to represent a strong bet of the dominant sectors in this attempt at military relegitimization before the population. His election as minister is also a message to the military family itself. The current head of the Army is close to Karina Mileisister and general secretary of the President, which conditions the wing referenced with Villarruelthe vice president who admires Saw. The joke is that the statement from the Office of the President talk about a “depoliticized” Armed Forces.

The heir

It is a fool’s errand to speculate on what the lieutenant general will or will not do. Carlos Alberto Presti from the Ministry of Defense. But it is worth, in the meantime, knowing where it comes from. And, above all, what he thinks.

When the now minister entered the Military Collegein 1984, his father Roque Carlos Presti enjoyed great prestige within the Armed forces. The thing is that, as a leader of the army, the old man had more than fulfilled important missions within the genocidal scheme that had the coup of March 24, 1976 as one of its milestones.

At the time of the overthrow of the government of Isabel Peronthe colonel Roque Presti commanded the Infantry Regiment 7 of La Plata. Without hesitation, the Military Junta of Saw, Massage y August put him in front of the Buenos Aires Police. For a long time he ran a good part of the network of clandestine detention centers in the region. At the same time, it coordinated actions with parastatal gangs that were already acting, such as the National University Concentration (CNU) of the Peronist right.

The father of the new minister was directly responsible for the crimes committed in clandestine centers such as La Cacha , Spider Well , Fifth Police Station and the Criminal Unit 9 . In November 1976, he was one of those who commanded the attack on the house on 30th Street between 55 and 56 in the capital of Buenos Aires, where in addition to shooting Montonero militants, they kidnapped Clara Anahí Mariani Teruggionly three months old. Chicha Marianitireless founder of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayodied in 2018 without being able to reunite with his granddaughter.

Upon leaving the dictatorship, Roque Presti was accused of serious violations of human rights. With much evidence against him and the invaluable testimony of survivors, the Federal Chamber prosecuted him for crimes committed against 44 victims and ordered him to be arrested. But he spent little time in prison. After the carapintada uprising of the Easter 1987 the then president Raul Alfonsin agreed impunity for thousands of genocidal perpetrators, which led to the sanction by the Congress of the Law of Due Obedience. Just like Miguel Etchecolatz, Alfredo Astiz, Ramon Camps or the Tigre Acosta, Priest He was formally free of guilt and charge.

In 1993 Carloshis son, cried uncontrollably with the whole family over the death of the old man. Roque. There were heartfelt condolences from the military sectors (many converted into notices from the section Funerals of The Nation) and for years, except for survivors, human rights organizations and the left, no one else spoke of the former leader responsible for countless tortures and disappearances. He died unpunished and without even confessing the fate of his victims or saying who appropriated them. Clara Anahi.

The new Minister of Defense He never questioned the atrocities executed by the Armed forces. much less the leading role of his father in that framework of terror. On the contrary, even knowing the whole truth from within, he decisively continued his military career until reaching the highest rank of head of the force, in January of last year. Such an exaltation is nothing other than a tribute to the old Roque and the rest of his criminal “comrades.”

“In the military forces, junior officers cannot make value judgments, because they respond to a chain of command, but when they reach high command they can. Priest “He never issued a statement of repudiation of his father, when now he can do so,” he said last year. Erika Lederer a The Daily Left. She is the daughter of Ricardo Ledereranother genocidaire who died unpunished.

Along with other relatives of repressors, Erika formed the collective Disobedient Assemblywhich puts the commitment to Memory, Truth and Justice before any “mandate” of blood. In few countries like Argentina the human rights movement achieved such development and massiveness. New generations of militants against oblivion, forgiveness and reconciliation joined the pioneering struggle of survivors and relatives. And to the horror of the genocidaires, many of their offspring also joined those struggles.

“As children of genocide perpetrators, we are not responsible for the crimes of our parents, but we understand that the silence of their son would be at the stage of denial and concealmentwhich It is also part of what is a genocide”, Lederer stated when Presti was placed in charge of the Army. Today, given the news that the son of the old genocide will be Minister of Defense, he adds that it is “an attempt or insinuation to reconstruct the old military party” and that his appointment is “an element that reinforces the escalation of the Bonapartist features of the Government.”