Saturday, 27 June 2015

Argentina Armenians Keep Culture Alive

Latin America's largest Armenian population hold fast to their cultural identity 100 years after their ancestors fled a massacre in the Ottoman Empire.
 
 

Armenians in Argentina commemorate genocide

Armenians march to the residence of the Turkish ambassador to demand justice 100 years after what has come to be known as the Armenian genocide.
 
 

Raúl Alfonsín teaches about social justice and peace while the conservative republican Ronald Reagan stands with a blank expression


Thursday, 18 June 2015

BBC Documentary Our World 2015 Who Killed Alberto Nisman


Alberto Nisman, Argentina's special prosecutor, had just accused the government of covering-up the country's deadliest terrorist attack. But he never got to testify before Congress. He was found dead in his flat. Was it suicide or murder? In an exclusive interview the BBC's Wyre Davies speaks to Alberto Nisman's former wife. She says he was murdered and the official investigation into his death flawed. Davies also meets the last person known to have seen Nisman alive. In a tale of corruption and international espionage Our World asks - who killed Alberto Nisman?
 
 
 

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Dagmar Hagelin: a Swedish Teenage Girl



Dagmar Hagelin, age 17, a swedish girl, living in Buenos Aires, was shot and kidnapped on January 27th, 1977 by Alfredo Astiz, a member of task force 332 (GT332), based in the Navy Mechanics School (Spanish initials: ESMA: Escuela Mecanica de La Armada, a secret detention center, and extermination camp in the capital, Buenos Aires). She was carried to the ESMA, wounded but alive. At least three survivors of the ESMA saw Dagmar and talked to her in captivity. She was mentally sound and her physical condition was improving when she was finally killed by her captors.
Dagmar Hagelin was kidnapped by mistake, and her disapperance became an international problem to the Argentine dictatorship. To prevent leaks about the atrocities in the ESMA, Dagmar's captors decided to kill her in cold blood.
She never came back.
 
 
 
THIS IS A STORY BASED ON THE DISAPPEARANCE OF DAGMAR. LANGUAGES OF THE MOVIE:  ENGLISH, SPANISH AND SWEDISH.


Congress packed for anti-gender violence march

The plazas and streets around Congress were filled with tens of thousands of campaigners protesting against gender violence, as the #NiUnaMenos march brought out massive crowds in solidarity with victims of mistreatment.

Family members of women who had been killed at the hands of partners or ex-partners were the first to gather near the iconic City landmark today, alongside survivors left paralysed or blinded by abusive relationships. As the afternoon went on the area was taken over by sympathisers of the campaign, organised primarily through social media and with some famous faces lending support.

"No more femicide. From Barcelona we join today every Argentine to shout loudly #NiUnaMenos", Barcelona football star Lionel Messi wrote on his Facebook page. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner also criticised what she considered "a culture of devastation against feminism."

As well as the capital, over 80 cities across Argentina organised events for the campaign. The City march, which has gained massive publicity and support from social media, political, artistic and cultural figures, began from Congress.

The hashtag #NiUnaMenos translates to not a women less in English, and refers to violent attacks and murders targeting females in the country. According to the latest available statistics, 1808 women were killed in the last seven years - an average of one every 31 hours.

The organisers of the march showed in front of Congress a manifesto demanding:

- The implementation of the National Action Plan for the Prevention, Assistance and Erradication of Violence against Women, with is included in law 26.485. That it is wholly observed, with monitoring and budget.

- That victims' access to the courts is guaranteed; that there is judicial support; that they do not become victims again; that the cases heard in civil and penal courts are joined together for a more agile system.

- Within the state there must be a single official register of victims, so that public policies are designed from that perspective.

- A guarantee of integral sexual education at all education levels.

- The victims must be protected because it is extremely difficult for a woman to make an accusation living in a situation of domestic violence. When it happens, the courts have to ensure the measures ordered are carried out against the violent party. 


 Read more about this here.