Visiting Buenos Aires this weekendEmmanuel Macron will pay a symbolic tribute to the victims, including French victims, of Argentina’s military dictatorship, before meeting ultraliberal President Javier Milei, who is close to Donald Trump. The French president arrived Saturday evening in the Argentine capital and has already had dinner with his counterpart. His stated aim: the “hang up“to theinternational consensus“and “G20 priorities“which they will then attend on Monday and Tuesday in Brazil.

Before another meeting with Javier Milei at the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, the French head of state, accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron, will lay a wreath at the foot of the Santa Cruz church, a memorial to the resistance against the dictatorship (1976-1983). The Élysée evokes “a powerful message“for”to say that France does not forget“.

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In December 1977, several founding members of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who were demanding information about their missing relatives, were arrested, tortured and murdered after meeting in this church. Among the victims were French nuns Léonie Duquet and Alice Domon, who were abducted and killed in a “robbery of death“In all, at least 22 French nationals were counted among the dead or missing at the time. In all, at least 22 French nationals were counted among the dead or missing during this period.

A revisited balance sheet

Emmanuel Macron is not the first French leader to pay tribute to the memory of these victims. But the context has changed since Javier Milei took office 11 months ago. The president, and even more so his vice-president Victoria Villaruel, who comes from a military family, have been accused of revisionism by human rights organizations.

They prefer to speak of “war“againstguerrillas“rather than “dictatorship“And they don’t hesitate to revisit the military junta’s death toll during these years. And they don’t hesitate to revisit the death toll of the military junta in power during those years: while the generally accepted figures of human rights organizations put the death toll at 30,000, Javier Milei mentions less than 9,000 victims.

The hypothetical release of Alfredo Astiz

In July, six MPs from the ruling party visited Alfredo Astiz and other ex-militaries convicted of crimes against humanity in prison. President Milei, however, distanced himself from the gesture. Astiz, a 73-year-old former naval captain, has twice been sentenced to life imprisonment in Argentina, notably for the kidnapping and disappearance of French nuns. In France, he was sentenced in his absence to life imprisonment in 1990 for the same case.

In early November, relatives of missing French nuns were received by advisors to President Macron at the Élysée Palace. They asked the head of state to convey to his Argentine counterpart their “deepest sympathy”.concern” about the hypothetical release of Alfredo Astiz. “At this stage, there is no questioning of the judicial procedures that led to the conviction of those responsible.“Emmanuel Macron’s entourage assures us, while making it clear that they have no intention of “interfere in Argentina’s domestic politics“.

Jean-Pierre Lhande, president of the Association des parents et amis des Français disparus en Argentine, felt that the presidential tribute was “insufficient“. “What I’ve been calling for for years is for someone in France to be put in charge of the search for the French people who disappeared in Argentina, and for Argentina to appoint someone else.“he told AFP, stressing that time is of the essence because “the relatives of the missing are almost all dead“.