"More than ever: never again," "There were 30,000 of them," "Neither forgetting nor forgiveness." Placards in hand, between 80,000 and 100,000 people (depending on the source) converged on the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires on Sunday March 24. That date, the anniversary of the 1976 coup d'état, is dedicated to "memory, truth and justice" for the crimes against humanity committed by the military junta during the dictatorship (1976-1983).

On Sunday, as they headed home after the first "24 de marzo" of Javier Milei's far-right presidency, participants felt that they had taken part in "a march like no other," given the leader's position on the topic and his tendency to deny or relativize those crimes. Many of them, however, had not yet seen the video released by the government on social media in the morning, at precisely the moment when the demonstration began, presenting "its version" of this dark period in Argentine history.

In a 12-minute video, for the first time since the return of democracy in 1983, a government officially revived the "theory of the two demons," which consists of justifying the crimes against humanity committed during the "Years of Lead" by presenting them as a response to attacks perpetrated by the far-left armed groups of the time.

With a sober style, the video calls for a "day of memory, truth and justice" but adds the word: "total." It attempts to put forward the idea that, unlike the military, the perpetrators of those far-left attacks have not been convicted. However, the main living leaders of these armed groups were tried in the 1980s – before being granted amnesty by President Carlos Menem (in office from 1989 to 1999). The video also casts doubt on the figure of 30,000 people who disappeared during the dictatorship.

The post revived the victims' worst memories of abuses committed during this period. "I am outraged by this web of lies. I'm angry and feel powerless. They have all the means at their disposal to spread their revisionism," said Arnaldo Pinon, who was detained by the dictatorship in 1978 before going into exile in France for 30 years.

Human rights organizations support the figure of 30,000 disappeared persons based on the evidence, incomplete as it is, that is available to the courts to judge the military and their civilian accomplices. "Those who must provide the information are precisely those who have walled themselves up in silence, in a pact not to speak and not to repent," said Pinon.

Since 2003, with the arrival in power of the Peronist Nestor Kirchner, who put an end to the impunity laws passed in 1986 and 1987, Argentina has been held up as a model for its work of commemoration, now under threat. "It's been 20 years since I took part in the march, because I thought that the question of remembering the crimes of the dictatorship was a settled debt in Argentine society," said Alejandro Bellotti, 49, who this year attended the march accompanied by his 13-year-old son. "This time, discourse vindicating state terrorism, previously a fringe issue, are increasingly present, including within the government."

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