The last
National Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice
revived old controversies that have their origins in the 1970s, and dozens of voices joined the discussion about those years of political violence and Military Dictatorship, murders and disappearances.
This Monday,
a voice broke the silence after 50 years
.
Nélida Vaglio, "Coca"
, secluded herself all that time to cope with the pain of the murder of her husband, the powerful man of unionism at the time:
José Ignacio Rucci
.
Since the death of Rucci, shot to death one morning in September 1973 on Avellaneda Street in the Flores neighborhood - a death historically attributed to
Montoneros
, although the organization always denied it - "Coca" chose not to speak.
Until today.
"I really wanted to talk, because yesterday I had a terrible day. Because
I could never understand why half of history was erased
. Because in this country history is told according to the political idea you have," he began, almost in a monologue, this morning when being interviewed on Radio Miter.
"I am 94 years old, and thank God I have a good memory. Because I experienced terrorism, I experienced it firsthand. I have lost count of the times I had to escape with the boys, when José called me and told me
' grab some clothes, and the boys and go that way.'
I lived escaping," he recalled, as if the memories were just from yesterday.
Nélida Vaglio, at an event held by the CGT in 2008.
"Coca" broke the silence to intervene in the controversy that was triggered by the publication of a video - on the official Casa Rosada account on the social network .
The publication - retweeted by President Javier Milei - provoked the most diverse reactions, rejections and endorsements alike, while the Plaza de Mayo was the scene of
one of the most massive events in recent times
, remembering March 24, 1976.
"Yesterday the Day of Memory, Truth and Justice was celebrated, for me it is incomplete. They do not tell the truth. I only know what I experienced, what I suffered, and what I continue to suffer. Yesterday when I was watching television and listening to the boastful things they said, the nonsense they said, because it was a day to demonstrate in silence, because that's what we all suffer," said the union leader's widow.
The car in which Rucci was killed.
After remembering that threats were commonplace, not only for her husband but also for her and her two children, the woman regretted the biased view of those years.
"I experienced that firsthand and I still carry it in my soul. That's why it
hurts me enormously that in this country half of the story is forgotten
, that things are not told as they were. That they only remember part of it," he claimed.
And he insisted on claiming his place in that history: "Not a part. Everything. It's a shame that they forget what happened before. They may have wanted to erase what happened before, but it can't be erased. I lived it firsthand."
"I want to know why they forget that part of the story. I tell it because I experienced it firsthand, no one told it to me," he concluded.
D.D.