By Daniel Schweimler for bbc.co.ukArgentina is marking the day when, 35 years ago, the military took control of the country, heralding seven years of rule that became known as the Dirty War.
24 March is now a national holiday with rallies and other events to celebrate democracy and to remember the estimated 30,000 people who were kidnapped, tortured and killed by the Argentine authorities.
The debate over the legacy of the Dirty War is still raging. The victims' mothers still march every Thursday afternoon in front of the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, demanding answers.
Justice has been slow in coming. But the architects of military rule are now, very publicly, being forced to answer for their actions.
Two former military presidents, Jorge Videla and Reynaldo Bignone, along with six of their most loyal supporters, are being tried for what many Argentines feel is the worst atrocity in a long list of human rights abuses committed in the 1970s and 80s.
They are accused of stealing babies from pregnant prisoners and giving them up for adoption to childless couples who supported their government. The mothers were then killed, sometimes thrown from planes into the River Plate.
The trial is dealing with 34 cases.
'War against subversion'
The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo is a human rights group formed by the mothers of the women who gave birth in captivity. They have so far tracked down more than 100 stolen babies, now adults in their late 20s and early 30s.
Their identities were changed, birth certificates were falsified and the adoptive parents rarely revealed the truth to the children they brought up. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo believe that up to 400 babies were taken in this way.
The prosecution alleges that maternity units were set up in three of the many detention centres run by the authorities as part of a policy planned by the military leaders, including the Navy Mechanical School, or Esma.
Videla is reported to have broken his arm and is not appearing in court for several weeks. The remaining seven were asked if they wanted to make declarations about the charges against them.
One by one they declined.
Instead, their lawyers read out previous declarations they had made, all denying any knowledge of a systematic plan to steal babies.
The phrase that cropped up throughout the declarations was "war against subversion".
All the accused say they overthrew President Isabel Peron because..Read full article
