Eduardo Duhalde, on his sayings for a possible coup: "I am not exempt from having psychotic issues, it could happen to me"

08/27/2020 - 18:21

• Clarín.com
• Politics

Former President Eduardo Duhalde is taking an unexpected role in recent days. Since his appearance in the program " Animals Loose " (America) where on Monday he said that in 2021 "there will be no elections, because Argentina is the champion of military dictatorships," he managed to obtain the rejection of all sectors and even asked to quote him to Congress.

Now, in an interview with Mauro Viale on A24, he admitted that "he should not have said " what he said and that it was " a response linked to a momentary disengagement from reality ."

Duhalde responded to the criticism he received from a large part of the political community, human rights organizations and unions for his statements about the possibility of a breakdown of the constitutional order in the country.

"I have heard all the repercussions of many friendly people. What does a former president have to do if a person whom he has a lot of trust tells him that they are preparing a coup," he defended himself.

In addition, he said that at that time he wanted to "locate Agustín Rossi" when they told him that, and he could not. The Defense Minister himself was not one of those who ruled out any possibility of a possible coup.

"I called Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and she located Rossi. She told me: 'Go immediately to see Rossi', and on July 18 I went to see him and told him what I knew, " he said. "He treated me very well, he told me that he is convinced that the Armed Forces are defending the democratic system but that he was also going to find out," he explained.

" I was still scared, " he continued. "Because, unlike the majority, I lived - I was the municipal mayor of Lomas de Zamora - the 1976 coup with extraordinary drama. Many people lived it with a lot of drama," he added.

Asked about the identity of the military officer who alerted him to a possible coup, the former Buenos Aires governor also refused to reveal his name. " I said what I had to say to whom it belongs, which is Rossi, " he said.

"I cannot tell what I told the minister for elementary reasons. Imagine that he is a man from the Army who is undercover today, he is a Peronist so he is afraid that there will be a coup," he insisted.

In another part of the interview, Duhalde gave his version about why he launched that warning last Monday on a television program that, he said, worried his wife, former senator Hilda "Chiche" Duhalde, and their daughters "very much".

"I told my daughters and now everyone that for many months I have been talking about an issue: that the (coronavirus) pandemic produces psychotic attitudes, a disengagement from reality and, never like now, do you see people saying things that in his right mind he would not say them, "he said.

"I want to tell my daughters that I am not exempt from having these psychotic issues. It can happen to me. I don't recognize myself saying what I said. It is not a psychotic break, it is an instant, it is a disengagement from reality. It is like a flash, "he justified.

"As I am panicky of the coup, then I start to think, I see the advance of militarism in Latin America and it begins to scare me more. That obviously produces that effect on me. My daughter told my granddaughter, Dad had a moment, a disengagement from reality and he said what he did not have to say, "he said.

The former president admitted that "he should not have said" what he said in that program and insisted that it was "a response linked to the momentary loss of the mind that disengages from reality."

In this regard, he said he was "calm" about the possibility of an attempted coup because "people from the different political parties" told him: 'Eduardo is right, Agustin Rossi.'

Source: agencies.