United States President Barack Obama will not be in Buenos Aires on March 24 to avoid the demonstrations that will be staged in Plaza de Mayo to mark the 40th anniversary of the last military coup.
The US leader will be in Bariloche, Río Negro, confirmed yesterday Kevin Sullivan, the US Business attaché in an interview with Clarín Group’s Mitre radio station.
“We are still defining the details of his visit. It is clear that he will be holding a bilateral meeting with President Mauricio Macri and his team,” Sullivan said.
The deputy chief of mission in Argentina said that it is still not confirmed whether Obama will be visiting the AMIA Jewish community centre or if he will be holding a meeting with Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo head Estela Barnes de Carlotto and other human rights groups during his visit to the country.
Sources from Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo told the Herald that they haven’t made any arrangement so far and that they are willing to talk to Obama to request the declassification of US archives related to the role of Washington between 1976 and 1983.
Last month, the White House confirmed that Obama would be arriving in the country on March 23 after a historic visit to Cuba to thank Macri’s human rights efforts in the region. Obama’s statement was seen as a thinly-veiled reference to the new Argentine position against Nicolás Maduro’s government in Venezuela.
According to daily Clarín, US Ambassador to Argentina Noah Mamet told Macri on February 11 about Obama’s arrival. Only four days later, Macri arrived at the ESMA memorial — where the Human Rights Secretariat has its headquarters — to participate in a meeting of Justice Minister Germán Garavano’s Cabinet. According to Human Rights Secretary Claudio Avruj, they did not discuss the March 24 commemoration and they did not address Obama’s visit.
Unconfirmed reports claimed that Obama may be invited to visit the ESMA memorial, where the country’s most infamous clandestine detention centre operated. However, the national government announced that it was preparing a commemoration there for March 19 in order not to interfere with the demonstrations to Plaza de Mayo scheduled for five days later.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel a sent a letter to Obama on Thursday, asking him not to be in the country on March 24.
“President Obama wants to visit Argentina as there are many possibilities of cooperation between the two countries,” Sullivan noted.
