Lawmakers lead military coup 36th anniversary commemoration

The Upper and Lower Houses of Congress held a joint special session to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the military coup. Lawmakers paid homage to the court members who led the trial against the military junta.

The ceremony was led by Vice-President Amado Boudou. Thirty thousand people were kidnapped and murdered between 1976 and 1983, in the worst miltary dictatorship in Argentina's history, led by former general Jorge Rafael Videla.

Former judges León Arslanian, Ricardo Gil Lavedra-current Radical Party lawmaker, Jorge Torlasco, Jorge Valerga Aráoz, Guillermo Ledesma, the late Andrés D’Alessio and prosecutor Julio César Strassera, among others, were paid homage by lawmakers.

As President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner opted to spend the weekend in her private residence in Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz province, the Vice-president led the commemoration of the bloody coup, which began a 7 year military dictatorship which systematically violated human rights and kidnapped, tortured and killed thirty thousand people between 1983 and 1976.

Later today, pioneer human rights groups Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo will lead rallies to claim for justice as they search for their missing children and grandchildren.