Victoria Villarruel
Victoria Villarruel | |
|---|---|
 Villarruel in 2022 | |
| Vice President-elect of Argentina | |
| Assuming office 10 December 2023 | |
| President | Javier Milei (elect) |
| Succeeding | Cristina Fernández de Kirchner |
| National Deputy | |
| Assumed office 10 December 2021 | |
| Constituency | City of Buenos Aires |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Victoria Eugenia Villarruel 13 April 1975 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Political party | Democratic Party (since 2022) |
| Other political affiliations | La Libertad Avanza (since 2021) |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation |
|
| Awards | Friend della forze dell'Ordine (2012) |
Victoria Eugenia Villarruel (born 13 April 1975) is an Argentine politician, lawyer, and activist who is the vice president-elect of Argentina. She is the founder and president of a civil association called the Center for Legal Studies on Terrorism.[1] A member of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies since 2021, Villarruel like president-elect Javier Milei belongs to the Libertad Avanza political coalition.[2]
Early life and education
Villarruel was born on 13 April 1975.[3] Her grandfather was a historian who was employed by the Argentine Navy; according to her, he survived four guerrilla bombings. Her father was a high-ranked Argentine Army member.[4] In 2008, she took a course in Inter-Agency Coordination and Combating Terrorism at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies,[5] a U.S. Department of Defense institution based at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.[6]
Career
Villarruel has lectured on human rights and the victims of terrorism in many countries around the world, including the United States, Norway, Spain, Italy, France, Colombia, Uruguay, Peru, and Mexico. She has also been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the Spanish newspaper ABC, and many other major world media.[7]
She co-authored the book "Los Otros Muertos" (The Others Dead), in which the stories of victims of terrorism in Argentina are told, and was president of the Human Rights Commission of the Bar Association of the City of Buenos Aires.[8]
Speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum in 2011, Villarruel challenged what she described as the official history of modern Argentina. According to that history, terrorism took place more or less exclusively during the Dirty War, when the nation was under a military junta; Villarruel's point of view was that organized terrorism also occurred between 1973 and 1976, when it had a democratic government. She postulated that the two major Argentine guerrilla groups of that era, the People's Revolutionary Army and Montoneros, had links with the Castro regime in Cuba and with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), with at least one of the groups training Islamists in the Middle East and supplying the PLO with weapons that were used in deadly attacks on Israel. Villarruel said that this history was later covered up by the Kirchner government, that the terrorists of the 1970s went on to enjoy the Kirchners' protection, and that many of those former terrorists held positions of responsibility in the Argentine establishment, citing civil servants or journalists. In her talk, Villarruel also accused the Kirchner government of acting in complicity with Iran.[9]
Los Otros Muertos, Villarruel's 2014 book about focusing on Argentine conflicts, has been alleged to include methodological errors; it lists 84 N.N. victims dated before the foundation of the groups she denounces as terrorists, victims of other groups like the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance, and did not differentiate between civilian deaths and military casualties.[10] According to Villarruel, the majority of their crimes had in fact been committed during the three years of democracy immediately prior to the 1976 military coup.[4] Because of her criticism of the terrorists and of their rehabilitation, she has been accused of defending the Dirty War.[4] According to Villarruel, she received numerous threats, and consequently is obliged to take extensive precautions.[4]
In 2020, Villarruel signed the Madrid Charter, a document drafted by the far-right Spanish party Vox, that describes left-wing groups such as the São Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group, as enemies of Ibero-America and accuses them of engaging in "a criminal project under the umbrella of the Cuban regime" that "seeks to destabilize liberal democracies and the state of law".[11][12][13] Villaruel is the running mate of Javier Milei in the 2023 Argentine general election. She supports civil unions but not same-sex marriage in Argentina, and disagrees with Milei on questions like organ trade legalization, on the grounds that the human body is not a good; their differences of views have been explained as philosophical issues due to Milei's economist background.[14] They also held different views on the Argentine military dictatorship. While Milei publicily expressed that he is not a defender of it, Villaruel is the daughter of a military officer and has been accused by some of historical revisionism in her accounts of the period.[15][16]
Political views
On social issues, while she is favorable to civil unions for same-sex couples, she is opposed to same-sex marriage.[14] She has defended the National Reorganization Process which along with some of her views on the military junta period, have garnered criticism as noted above. [16] Those stances have garnered controversy and criticism, including accusations of denial of State Terrorism.[17][15] In a 2011 interview, Villarruel asserted that opposition politicians in Argentina avoided speaking about the victims of 1970s terrorism. She said that the Center for Legal Studies on Terrorism had managed to identify by name 13,074 victims of terrorists, of which 1,010 were assassinated, and added that this figure was only preliminary.[18] Villarruel's views on social issues are heavily influenced by her Traditional Catholic faith (She assist a church from the FSSPX).[19][20][21]
After the end of the Kirchner era in early 2016, Villarruel continued to criticize the presidencies of Néstor Kirchner and his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, alleging that they defended left-wing terrorists, and engaged in whataboutism regarding victims of terrorism to deflect from those of the junta. She said: "For the past twelve years, the Kirchner governments have glorified the armed struggle of the guerrillas. In Argentina, if you don't support the guerrillas, people assume you support the dictatorship."[4] As a result of her controversial statements, critics accused her of trying to rewrite the history of the military dictatorship and of whitewashing the junta, charges that she denied.[4]
Electoral history
Executive
| Election | Office | List | Votes | Result | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | ||||||
| 2023 | Vice President of Argentina | La Libertad Avanza | 14,476,462 | 55.69% | 1st | Elected | ||
Legislative
| Election | Office | List | No. | District | Votes | Result | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | ||||||||
| 2021 | National Deputy | La Libertad Avanza | 2 | City of Buenos Aires | 313,808 | 17.04% | 3rd[a] | Elected | [22] | |
- ^ Presented on an electoral list. The data shown represents the share of the vote the entire party/alliance received in that constituency.
Books
- Los llaman... jóvenes idealistas (English: They call them... idealist youth), 2010.[7]
- The other dead (Los otros muertos), 2014, co-written with Carlos Manfroni.[5][9]
References
- ^ "Victoria Villarruel | Speakers | Oslo Freedom Forum". Oslo Freedom Forum. 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
- ^ "Javier Milei confirmó que Victoria Villarruel será su compañera de fórmula: 'Trabajamos muy bien'". Infobae (in Spanish). 15 May 2023. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
- ^ "Sobre el silencio y el dolor de los inocentes, no tenemos futuro". La Nacion Revista. 2010. Archived from the original on 5 June 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f Lehmann, Remi (29 February 2016). "Activists Fear the History of Argentina's Dirty War Is About to Be Rewritten". Vice News. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
- ^ a b "Alumni Spotlights" (PDF). Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 December 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
- ^ "About the Perry Center". 2016. Archived from the original on 27 November 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
- ^ a b "Presentación del libro 'Los otros Muertos, las Víctimas Civiles del Terrorismo Guerrillero de los 70'". Federalismo y Libertad (in Spanish). 29 February 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- ^ "Victoria Villarruel: We Are The Common Sense".
{{cite web}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help); Missing or empty|url=(help) - ^ a b "Victoria Villarruel – Terrorism and Impunity in Argentina". YouTube. 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
- ^ Ximena Tordini (10 October 2021). "Victoria Villarruel, la otra hija".
- ^ "Carta de Madrid" (in Spanish). Fundación Disenso. 26 October 2020. Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
- ^ "Qué es la Carta de Madrid, el documento que firmaron senadores del PAN y desató la polémica con el partido VOX". Infobae. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
- ^ "Spooked by Venezuela – Revulsion at Venezuela is fuelling the hard right in Latin America". The Economist. Vol. 9270, no. 441. London: The Economist Intelligence Unit. 6 November 2021. p. 49. ISSN 0013-0613. Archived from the original on 14 August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
- ^ a b "La vice de Milei se mostró en contra del Matrimonio Igualitario". Ámbito (in Spanish). 11 May 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- ^ a b "Quién es Javier Milei y cuáles son las radicales propuestas con las que ganó las primarias en Argentina". BBC News Mundo (in Spanish). 14 August 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
- ^ a b Rivas Molina, Federico (15 August 2023). "Que tiene en la cabeza Javier Milei". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- ^ Centenera, Mar (24 March 2023). "El negacionismo de la dictadura pone a prueba la solidez de la democracia argentina". El País Argentina (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 August 2023.
- ^ O'Grady, Mary Anastasia (2 January 2011). "Las víctimas olvidadas del terror en Argentina". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2023 – via Los Anteojos del Tata. 4 January 2011.
- ^ "The make-up of Victoria Villarruel's inner circle | Buenos Aires Times".
- ^ "Los rituales secretos de Villarruel en una facción católica marginal y ultraconservadora".
- ^ "La militancia "lefebvrista" de Villarruel y su influencia en los dichos de Milei contra el Papa y a favor de la dictadura". 6 October 2023.
- ^ "Elecciones 2021". Argentina.gob.ar (in Spanish). Dirección Nacional Electoral. 2021. Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.