The photo is chilling. Taken on July 11 at the Ezeiza federal prison, some 30 kilometers from Buenos Aires, it shows six MPs from Javier Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), smiling alongside elderly inmates. The 15 detainees in the photo were convicted of crimes against humanity, including kidnapping, torture, enforced disappearance and rape during Argentina’s last dictatorship (1976-1983). According to a report by the Argentine magazine Crisis, the meeting lasted several hours and took place in a common room in Unit 31 of the penitentiary where the prisoners are held.

One of the most infamous, Alfredo Astiz, nicknamed the “Angel of Death,” was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia in France in 1990 for the 1977 disappearance of French nuns Alice Domont and Léonie Duquet. In 2011 and again in 2017, he was again sentenced to life imprisonment in Argentina. According to Crisis, on the afternoon of July 11 in Ezeiza, he didn’t utter a single word during the entire meeting.

Carried out under the guise of a “humanitarian visit” to “observe the living conditions of the detainees,” as one of the organizers, MP Beltran Benedit, later stated, the visit, revealed by the daily Pagina 12 on July 17, provoked an outcry in Argentina. This was particularly noteworthy because it was an official visit. In fact, a vehicle was formally requested from the lower house to transport the MPs to the prison.

As the controversy grew, embarrassing Milei’s government, LLA MP Lourdes Arrieta, who attended the visit to Ezeiza, dropped a bombshell on X on Sunday, August 25. The MP – who resigned from LLA on Tuesday – posted screenshots of a WhatsApp conversation showing how the visit came about. The members of this messaging group include lawmakers, lawyers and judges.

‘Marxist subversion’

Exchanges show that Javier Olivera Ravasi, a far-right YouTuber priest and son of Jorge Olivera, who was sentenced three times to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, including the disappearance of another Frenchwoman, Marie-Anne Erize, was behind the initiative along with Benedit.

In the discussion, it becomes clear that the priest and MP’s objective is put pressure on the executive to pass legislation that would allow some of the elderly prisoners or those awaiting sentencing to be released. “We visited veterans who fought the battle against Marxist subversion,” Benedit reportedly said in a document circulated on WhatsApp.

It also revealed the existence of two draft laws and decrees. They aim to establish a “maximum period of 25 years [since the commission of the offense] for the state to reach a definitive sentence,” after which all proceedings are deemed to have been terminated. This effectively excludes many proceedings still in progress, but also affects the many cases under appeal. The draft decree also seeks to “compel judges to grant house arrest” to the over-70s. Currently, house arrest is not automatic. According to statistics published by the prosecutor’s office in charge of crimes against humanity, only 20% of the 636 detainees (504 of whom have already been convicted) are actually in prison. The rest are under house arrest.

You have 54.76% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.