In March campaign! | What's behind the parade of cars …

In the middle of an election campaign, Mauricio Macri reactivated the military parades that I had filed last year. And his defense minister justified Aldo Rico's participation in these activities. The contradiction is that Oscar Aguad is radical and that Aldo Rico and the carapintadas have risen up against the radical government of Raúl Alfonsín. In reality, the Minister, like many radicals who today support Cambiemos, was part of the friendly environment of Luciano Benjamín Menéndez in Córdoba.

During part of the radicalism, Rico's participation in the parade and The statements of Aguad constituted an offense to democracy and in memory of the former president. Elsewhere – in which Aguad is a prisoner – accustomed to old splinters and flirtors with military governments, this seemed entirely appropriate.

As is logical, Ricardo Alfonsín strongly criticized the words of Aguad, who, realizing the discomfort he had caused in his own ranks, preferred to correct himself. Aguad had said that the uprisings were "a thing of the past" and that they had been "small" episodes.

Coincidentally, Aldo Rico said the carapintadas uprisings were "internal problems" to the army and not to democracy. It was a way of concealing the true intentions of these rebellions against President Raúl Alfonsín regarding genocidal trials.

The carapintadas

Like all military badaults, the carapintadas rose to train all the armed forces as well as to obtain the necessary support from the American embbady which has always encouraged these movements of the Latin American armies. If they had found these answers, they would have badumed a new military government.

But the world has changed, the embbady has not reacted and, even if it sympathized with them, a large part of the army preferred to avoid problems with civil society. The dictatorship had been a huge and bloody failure and there was nothing or almost nothing to defend.

In the government of Mauricio Macri, the radicals are subordinate partners of the friends of the dictatorship, representatives of international financial organizations and sectors of the far right religious. The initial base of the anti-Kirchner fury came from the defenders of the repressors and executioners. They were the first furious substrate of the cacerolazos.

The inability to recognize the dire consequences of Fernando de la Rúa's government policy gave the impression that right-wing radicalism felt attacked every time the former president was criticized, died the same day that another radical desecrated the memory of Alfonsin. In fact, it is several leaders and referents of the Alliance who accompany with the most enthusiasm this strategy of compliance with macrismo and furious attack against Kirchnerism. This sector of radicalism is also the one that is less referenced with the Alfonsin judgments of human rights.

Macri uniform

Macri showed his aversion to historical commemorations. He found that he was uncomfortable in the majority of his presence. The first year of his government reactivated the July 9 military parades to contrast with the Kirchner governments and suspended them for budgetary reasons.

But now, on the eve of the elections and during the election campaign, he has decided to reactivate them and to promote a series of measures reinforcing his support in the military field. The badyst Rosendo Fraga believes that the armed forces and security, as well as their home environment, involve a flow of nearly one million votes, equivalent to 3 or 4 points of the total registry.. And on this million, it is estimated that 84% vote for change.

It's in the military mentality. The two governments furthest removed from the armed forces were not those of Alfonsin or Kirchnerists, but the menemist and macrist governments who dismantled them and boosted their salaries. The collapse of ARA San Juan is a very concrete example.

However, the majority of the military supported them because, despite everything, they maintain a false "pro-Western" mentality, which is in fact pro-American and of the time – and for their defense of torturers and rapists of the dictatorship.

The paradox in these armed forces is that during the trials, the businessmen who convinced the generals of the 1976 coup d'état, turned their backs on them. And this business sector is the one that was represented in the two governments supported by the majority of the military. They have been abandoned and destroyed by those who support. A masochistic attitude similar to that of the radical base that supports a government that suspends their economieslike that of other Argentineans.

The military vote

Difficult figures revealed by inquiries on the ruling party and the appearance of the candidacy of retired Major Juan José Gómez Centurión – cararapintada and former head of customs – set off the alarm. Part of the solution to consolidate military support was Aguad's parade and declarations.

In addition, the armed forces demanded the return of control over two large boxes handled by civilian officials. One of them is the Institute of Financial Aid, a sort of Army Anses with a capitalization fund of more than 30 billion pesos. Since the beginning of Macri's government, it was headed by ex-deputy Fabián Rogel, but retired General Hernán Prieto Alemandi has just taken office.

The chef de cabinet, Marcos Peña, promised that he would do the same with the Social Institute of Armed Forces Obra, which manages a fund of 20 billion pesos. In both cases, the military hierarchy had denounced the mismanagement of the funds to the detriment of the forces.

Cambiemos launched its electoral campaign with the armed forces with promises that were difficult to achieve later and with anti-democratic gestures that always separated them from civil society.