Obama: U.S. shares some blame for Argentina's 'dirty war'

By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Thursday, March 24, 2016

Visiting a memorial to victims of Argentina’s “dirty war,” President Obama said Thursday that the U.S. government was “slow to speak out for human rights” during the military junta’s rule 40 years ago.

“There’s been controversy about the policies of the United States early in those dark days,” Mr. Obama said at the Parque de la Memoria in Buenos Aires, a highlight of his two-day trip to the South American nation. “The United States, when it reflects on what happened here, has to examine its own policies as well, and its own past.”

Democracies must have “the courage to acknowledge when we don’t live up to the ideals that we stand for; when we’ve been slow to speak out for human rights. And that was the case here,” he said.

Mr. Obama has pledged to declassify U.S. military and intelligence files from that era, saying, “I believe we have a responsibility to confront the past with honesty and transparency.”

But the leading human rights groups in Argentina boycotted Mr. Obama’s appearance at the memorial, saying his presence on the 40th anniversary of the military coup in 1976 is a “provocation.” Many Argentines blame the U.S. for encouraging the coup and the repressive military dictatorship that killed an estimated 30,000 dissidents and other opponents until 1983.

Argentine President Mauricio Macri accompanied Mr. Obama at the memorial and thanked him for the gesture.

Most of the final day of Mr. Obama’s five-day trip to Cuba and Argentina was devoted to sightseeing.

The trip — and the images of Mr. Obama dancing as the world reels from the terrorist attacks in Brussels — have left Mr. Obama open to criticism that he should have returned home, a suggestion Mr. Obama and his aides have firmly rejected.

Obama administration officials have been anxious to make the trip to Argentina, in part to highlight the reform efforts of Mr. Macri, a center-right former businessman elected in December who has tried to repair the long cool relations between Washington and Buenos Aires.

The president brought along a second, smaller Air Force One for his family to enjoy a side trip to the remote resort town of Bariloche in southern Argentina. After dancing the tango at a state dinner in Buenos Aires Wednesday night, the Obama family boarded the government plane colloquially known as “baby” Air Force One Thursday to fly to the scenic town nestled on a lake in the foothills of the Andes. The smaller plane is a Boeing 757 used when traveling to places where the runway is too short for the primary Air Force One.

The larger Air Force One, a 747-200, was parked alongside the smaller plane at the airport in Buenos Aires, according to pool reporters traveling with the president. It costs about $206,000 per hour to fly the larger plane, which the president is expected to use for the 10-plus hour flight back to Washington Thursday night.

It’s common for the government to have a backup plane available when the president travels, although not often for a sightseeing excursion.

Hundreds of demonstrators were waiting Mr. Obama when he arrived in Bariloche, The Associated Press reported.

Human rights demonstrators tried to approach the presidential motorcade as it snaked along a riverside road, but were held back by police, according to the AP report. Some made crude gestures and held up signs, though they weren’t visible from the speeding motorcade.

Bariloche is famous for its chocolates and Swiss-style architecture; the first family spent the afternoon there hiking and boating. The town is also known for having served as a sort of haven for Nazis on the run after World War II. Several top former Nazis, including Dr. Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death” from the Auschwitz death camp, are believed to have sought refuge there in the decades after the war.

In 1994, an ABC News team tracked down Erich Priebke, a former Nazi SS captain, in Bariloche, where he had been living since 1949. Upon his exposure on television, he was eventually extradited to Italy and convicted of the massacre of 330 civilians near Rome in 1944. He was sentenced to prison.

• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.