Discussion in the House of Representatives to establish a commemoration date for victims of the pandemic

With the aim of listening to health professionals and family members of victims of the pandemic and establish a day in commemoration of them, Deputies met in the Human Rights Commission to rule on a project. However, two blocks came to a crossroads: the PRO proposes the March 20th as the date (day of the start of isolation measures) and Peronism the March 6th (due to the death of the first victim).

The deputy Daniel Gollán (Union for the Homeland)former Minister of Health of Buenos Aires during the pandemicstated that “all the measures that were taken were done within the framework of the highest health authority, which was the Federal Health Counciland all the ministers agreed. So we cannot say that excesses were committed, because we all participated.” “It was an effort by the Government and the entire people,” he said, adding: “I think this should help us improve and not try to play cheap politics.. We can make a serious, scientifically-based assessment of what happened to us.”

The next to take the floor was Fernando Iglesias (PRO): “Cheap politics was the extension of restrictive measures simply because it was in the political interest of the Government.” Another response to Gollán was: “Everything you say is relevant to the Health Commission; go and do the evaluation of the pandemic there, this is the Human Rights Commission.” He also intervened Damian Arabia (PRO) who reproached Gollán that “not all of us could decide; you locked us all up.”

The legislators Maximiliano Ferraro (Civic Coalition) and Natalia Sarapura (UCR) They sought to ease the discussion. The latter reflected: “You cannot honor the victims with the worst of us.” “We cannot forget the enormous consensus that Alberto Fernández had during the quarantine,” she mentioned. Monica Frade (Civic Coalition), and noted that “it seems to me that it is being made a partisan issue, but there has to be a day of commemoration.”

Interventions in the commission

During the day, workers and relatives of non-fatal victims of the pandemic were summoned. “We were frustrated while we were taking care of each other while casinos and gambling halls opened, but Schools remained closed. We could not keep our children safe from the whims of the rulers of the day who abandoned them to their fate just because they could do so,” he said. Paula Insani, from Organized Parents, which exclusively listed Peronist provincial administrations (Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Santa Cruz) as the most damaging and requested the resignation of Marisa Graham, the National Children’s Rights Ombudsman.

As a representative of the Citizen Movement 20M, Analía Marsella raised “inaugurate a new stage in Argentina in which before making a decision we consider two guiding principles of our legal system: The best interests of the child and the misinterpreted concept of gender perspective“We needed officials to study that closing schools would have a gender impact on the gender gap like never before in Argentina,” she added.

Subsequently, Pablo Maciel (Health Professionals Union Association of the Province of Buenos Aires) He recalled that “the pandemic has been one of the greatest health catastrophes in contemporary history and put the entire planet in check“. Then, he indicated that “the excess mortality that Argentina had was 18.2%, when in most countries in the region it was higher, with some with more than 30%” and concluded by stating that “We are aware that all the measures we have been taking, which were not only the isolation measures but fundamentally the largest vaccination campaign in the country“.

Call for a day of mourning to be declared for “victims of human rights violations during the pandemic”

Within the agenda of the day, the treatment of a proposal from the PRO for institutionalize March 20, the day on which isolation measures began to prevent the spread of the virus, as a day of national mourning. At the end of the day, the initiative was discussed in opposition to the Peronist project that seeks to establish the date of March 7, when the first COVID victim died in Argentina and Latin America.

The project stipulates the hoisting of the national flag at half-mast in state establishments and the coordination of commemorative days in educational institutions. The emphasis of the editorial is placed on paying tribute to “the victims of human rights violations during the pandemic” with the “objective of Memory, Truth and Justice.”

In this regard, the document presented by the deputy Sabrina Ajmechet (PRO) It does not focus on the people who died from contracting the disease but on the alleged “arbitrary measures, inaction and abuse of authority” of the previous administration that “had many dark points (sic)”, Considering that on March 20, 2020, “an isolation was decreed that curtailed individual freedoms.”

Fernando Brovelli Report.-