Scholz compares from Buenos Aires the Argentine dictatorship with the current repression in Iran

BUENOS AIRES, Jan. 29 (DPA/EP) -

The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has remembered this Sunday from Buenos Aires the thousands of victims of the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 and has compared this regime with the one that currently governs Iran and the repression of recent protests.

Scholz has visited the Parque de la Memoria-Monumento a las Víctimas del Terrorismo de Estado next to the Río de la Plata, from where he has explained that he cannot stop "immediately thinking about the young people who are now being murdered in Iran when they defend their freedom and a better life."

It is estimated that during the military dictatorship in Argentina between 7,000 and 30,000 people died. Some of the victims were thrown into the Río de la Plata on the so-called death flights without informing their next of kin. Scholz has been able to speak with relatives of the disappeared.

"The fact that the dictatorship brings suffering, oppression and death is very visible here, just as we perceive it in all parts of the world today," said the German chancellor. What happened in Argentina is a reminder that "freedom should not be taken for granted." "It is our task to make sure that we leave those times behind," he added.

The US organization Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has published a report this Sunday according to which at least 527 protesters have died in Iran since the start of the protests, more than four months ago.

Scholz also met with young people in the old port neighborhood of La Boca on the second day of his stay in Buenos Aires and later visited a factory of the German company Volkswagen.

The next stop on Scholz's trip is Chile and the last stop is Brazil, where, as in Argentina, he will support rapid progress in the negotiations for the signing of a trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, which is being negotiated for more than 20 years.