ARGENTINIANS marked on Sunday the anniversary of the 1976 military coup that ushered in a brutal right-wing dictatorship.

But as tens of thousands of protesters marched through central Buenos Aires and raised banners vowing “Nunca Mas,” or never again, the country’s far-right president posted an astonishing video on social media demanding justice for those killed by left-wing guerillas before the coup took place.

Under the dictatorship as many as 30,000 people were killed or forcibly disappeared in a systematic campaign that still haunts the country.

The video by President Javier Milei, who took office in December, referred to “the other dead” before the coup, part of an ongoing campaign to change Argentina’s memory of its recent history.

“For a complete memory so that there is truth and justice,” Mr Milei wrote on X with the video, which featured a cast of obscure figures all recounting the dictatorship’s repression in the context of a wider war.

“Those responsible for these crimes cannot go unpunished,” posted Vice-President Victoria Villarruel. Her caption: “It wasn’t 30,000.”

Before becoming vice-president, Ms Villarruel was best known as a fringe activist who paid prison visits to military junta leader Jorge Rafael Videla, challenged human rights groups’ estimate of 30,000 disappeared people and founded an organisation championing victims of leftwingers.

In a dramatic display of defiance on Sunday, Argentines of all ages brought central Buenos Aires to a halt singing, drumming and waving signs insisting: “There were 30,000.”

“This is an attack against memory, and that’s why we’re here with our granddaughter, for her to understand,” Mariela Bruno said from the march.

Matias Reggiardo, one of 500 Argentines born in captivity and stolen from his dissident parents before they were killed by the military, said: “It’s terrifying to find people in Milei’s government [who] cast doubt on our stories.”