Countries that once were leaders in dealing with crimes of the past in Latin America are now facing a paradigm shift. Far-right governments are calling into question the “Never Again” consensus and attacking memory policies.
Clara Weinstein, a member of the notorious Argentine organisation ‘Madres de Plaza de Mayo’ (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo), takes part in a demonstration to mark the 50th anniversary of the start of the last military dictatorship (1976–1983) in Buenos Aires on 24 March 2026. Photo: © Luis Robayo / AFP
Between the 1950s and the 1990s, Latin America endured dictatorships that committed crimes against humanity against dissenters. After the return to democracy, and following a long process of collective effort, the historic “Never Again” pact was established. This consensus was institutionalized through criminal justice policies, the creation of memory sites, reparations for victims, and educational initiatives for the new generations. It seemed that the struggle for memory, truth and justice had become a guarantee of non-repetition of past crimes.
Today, this consensus is under threat from far-right governments that are attacking these policies from multiple fronts. “What we see today is that the progress achieved in the past (…) is facing, on the one hand, persistent challenges such as impunity in many countries, and on the other, new threats linked to the rise of discourses expressing denialist, relativist, and vindicatory narratives of authoritarian pasts,” says Verónica Torras, coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Memory Sites and director of Memoria Abierta Argentina. “These are narratives that essentially amount to a vindication for the state crimes experienced in the region.”
Argentina: Milei’s “ideological chainsaw”
Argentina was the first country in the region to complete a truth commission in 1983. As a pioneer in memory, truth and justice, the country has so far prosecuted more than a thousand perpetrators of crimes against humanity. It has also promoted the creation of the National Genetic Data Bank and the National Commission for the Right to Identity, enabling the restoration of identity for forcibly disappeared children. Moreover, it is one of the few countries that has established numerous memory sites and enacted specific legislation to protect memory sites.
All these achievements are now under strain. Since President Javier Milei took office in December 2023, memory, truth and justice policies have been affected by drastic cuts under the blade of what the administration calls its “ideological chainsaw”. This strategy, which has impacted a broad range of human rights policies, has translated in this specific field into drastic cuts to human and financial resources, the dismantling of specialized teams, the elimination of key positions, the abolition of structures and programs, and the disruption of institutional coordination. These actions are summarized in the report Under Siege: Memory, Truth, and Justice Policies in the Face of the Revisionist Offensive, prepared by a coalition of key human rights organizations: Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo [Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo], dedicated to restoring the identity of children disappeared during the dictatorship; H.I.J.O.S. Capital [Sons and daughters for identity and justice against oblivion and silence], formed by the descendants of the disappeared; Center for Legal and Social Studies, a leading legal and research NGO; and Memoria Abierta [Open Memory], an alliance focused on preserving historical heritage.
This offensive has been direct and accompanied by confrontational rhetoric, most notably through official videos released on Remembrance Day, where the government has promoted the idea of “complete memory”, equating state terrorism with violence by armed organizations. For Verónica Torras, coordinator at Memoria Abierta, this discourse is dangerous because it “ends up relativizing the responsibility of state actors in grave human rights violations”, “shifts the focus” towards other groups, and dilutes the legal responsibility of the state, which used its full apparatus to persecute and exterminate the civilian population. Torras notes that this represents an attempt to “challenge already established historical and judicial truths”, justifying crimes against humanity and undermining the guarantees of non-repetition.
United Nations experts, led by Bernard Duhaime, the UN Special Rapporteur on truth, justice and reparation, have called on authorities to refrain from using disinformation and hate speech regarding these crimes and their victims. “Attempting to rewrite the past with denialist or revisionist narratives constitutes another alarming setback and a violation of human rights,” they said in a statement published on March 26, 2026.
Similarly, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has expressed concern over growing revisionist narratives in the southern Cone, the southernmost areas of South America. In a statement published on March 24, 2026, the Commission warned that these trends “violate the states permanent and unrenounceable obligation” to uphold guarantees of non-repetition. Furthermore, during IACHR’s 195th session, experts pointed to a qualitative shift in the region, noting that denialist discourses are no longer marginal but are now “led by the institutions themselves”, resulting in a technical dismantling of the policies that sustain democracy.
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Chile: a more subtle strategy?
From neighboring Chile, what is happening in Argentina is viewed with deep concern, acting as a mirror. The rise of the far right under the administration of President José Antonio Kast raises fears that Milei’s “ideological chainsaw” could be replicated, breaking the cross-party consensus that Chilean administrations have maintained since the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship and the return to democracy in 1990.
Although the current executive claims it will continue memory policies, critics see alarming signs in denialist and relativist rhetoric associated with Kast. For instance, former lawmaker and current undersecretary of justice, Luis Silva, described Pinochet as a “statesman” during a 2023 interview, while far-right representative Johannes Kaiser sparked outrage by questioning the circumstances of executions carried out during the dictatorship, leading victims’ families to consider legal action. These narratives, critics argue, serve to delegitimize established judicial truths and justify potential budget cuts to memory sites.
Former minister of justice and human rights, Jaime Gajardo believes the new administration is not as overt as its Argentinian neighbor: “The government has said that its intention is to maintain these policies, but (…) the opposite has been done: people in charge of these policies have been dismissed, official letters from the ministry of finance have circulated stating that this type of policy will be left without a budget,” he tells Justice Info.
The most concerning issue, Gajardo warns, is the collapse of the shared moral floor that had underpinned Chilean politics for decades. The executive “has not been clear nor categorical in maintaining the condemnation of crimes against humanity that all governments have upheld since the return to democracy,” he says. To illustrate the risk, he points to the right-wing administration of Sebastián Piñera, which has moved to end luxury prison conditions for military personnel. Facilities like Punta Peuco allowed perpetrators to serve sentences with exclusive privileges, including private suites and personal kitchens, in a “prison-hotel” system that stood in stark contrast to the country’s standard penitentiary conditions. But Kast’s far right has distanced itself from these actions, and politicians from his party and himself have even visited prisoners from the dictatorship.
To him, another example of this regression is the case of the former Colonia Dignidad, the German enclave that served as a torture center during Pinochet’s regime. The current government has reversed the expropriation of 117 hectares of the site, a measure that aimed at preserving it as a memory site and was promoted by previous administrations. For Gajardo, although authorities cite budgetary reasons, halting this process is not coherent: “Actions must be consistent with what is declared. Instead, what has been done is quite the opposite,” he says.
Margarita Romero, president of the Association for memory and human rights Colonia Dignidad, has told foreign media that “halting the expropriation is not neutral”: given the site’s ongoing evidentiary value, “it is a way of weakening the conditions needed to advance truth and justice,” she says.
Paraguay: the mirror of state abandonment
In Paraguay, where “El Stronato”, the longest dictatorship in the region took place between 1954 and 1989 under General Alfredo Stroessner, there is no recent attack, but a longstanding structural failure that now serves as a warning to the country’s neighbors. While Argentina and Chile have built institutional frameworks around memory, truth and justice, Paraguay’s state never fully followed through, leaving civil society largely alone in the fight for rights and justice.
Rogelio Goiburú, director of Reparations and Historical Memory at the Ministry of Justice, and son of the disappeared doctor Agustín Goiburú, embodies this struggle. His role is a testament to the state’s neglect: although he has an official position, he is forced to operate without a budget. “The Truth and Justice Commission issued a report in 2004 with 200 recommendations to guarantee non-repetition, but the vast majority remain unfulfilled due to lack of political will,” Goiburú tells Justice Info.
He says he has managed to recover 44 bodies and identify 18 victims from clandestine burial sites ranging from police headquarters and the dictator’s former private residences to remote rural farms, but these efforts rely entirely on external support. While he has identified 30 new sites for excavation, including secret mass graves hidden for decades, the Paraguayan state continues to turn its back on the search.
This neglect is also institutionalized in education. Unlike other educational processes consolidated in the region, studying recent history and authoritarianism is not mandatory in Paraguay, leaving the responsibility of teaching the crimes of “El Stronato” to the discretion of teachers who often avoid doing it. The result is an erasure of historical memory that, according to Goiburú, keeps the return to authoritarianism “always latent”. Without public policies to strengthen institutions and collective awareness, responsibility falls solely on a small group of victims and activists who continue their struggle and do this work with limited resources.
The end of policies won by “sacrifice, sweat, and tears”
What is happening in Paraguay reflects the warnings issued by Torras and Gajardo in Argentina and Chile. If state capacities are dismantled, the burden of memory will fall entirely on civil society organizations, whose reach is finite. Denialist discourse and harassment of institutions are not merely debates about the past, says Torras, but concrete threats to achievements won through “passion, sacrifice, sweat, and tears”. The siege unfolding in the Southern Cone, therefore, endangers the legacy of “Never Again”.
This crisis in memory policies is not unique to the rise of the far right, but rather reveals a broader systemic fragility across the region. For Torras, the current landscape represents “the worst of both worlds” for transitional justice. “Where we have progressive governments, we see that progress has been very lukewarm or practically nonexistent, and where we have right-wing governments, we know that there have been significant setbacks in what had been achieved,” she says.
Against this backdrop of institutional withdrawal, the resistance of survivors and international oversight remain as the primary defenses of democracy. The current siege on memory reveals that these policies are not just administrative formalities, but the very foundation of the rule of law. Romero wrote in a recent op-ed – “Truth is not reversible. Justice is not negotiable. Memory is not optional. Because in the face of impunity and denialism, what remains – and what will continue to unsettle power – is the truth”.
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