Police in Argentina evacuated a historically sensitive human rights center after it received bomb threats.
Buenos Aires:
Police in Argentina evacuated a historically sensitive human rights center after it received bomb threats on Friday, two days before a potentially transformative presidential election.
In other rare incidents linked to Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship, graffiti criticizing alleged corruption in the human rights movement appeared on another historic building in Buenos Aires.
In the first incident, a site once used as a secret prison where atrocities were committed against dissidents received several calls saying there was a bomb in the building, a government source said.
Police evacuated the center and bomb squads searched site but no suspicious object was found, so activities returned to normal after a few hours, a source in the center said.
The Space for Memory is housed in a former military school in the capital, a symbolic site for the human rights movement that campaigns for justice for dictatorship victims.
Critics have accused some in the human rights movement of using it to secure real estate deals.
Mauricio Macri, favorite in the polls to win Sunday's run-off election, said during campaigning that he would end "robberies in human rights" a reference to those who are allegedly profiting dishonestly from the movement.
On Friday graffiti referring to the sensitive issue were found near two other historic buildings linked to the dictatorship.
Opposite the Mansion Sere, formerly a site of secret atrocities, a slogan appeared in red that said: "On November 22 the robbery ends."
Other slogans were painted on a building in Moron, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, which was once a torture center and now serves as a memorial site.
Human rights groups say that around 30,000 people disappeared during the dictatorship, and that some Argentines do not want the crimes investigated.
The state Human Rights Secretariat condemned Friday's incidents as "another attack on the memory of victims, two days before an election."
Polls show Macri, a right-wing businessman, could end 12 years of left-wing government by the Peronist movement if he beats his rival Daniel Scioli in Sunday's vote.
Outgoing president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, an ally of Scioli, has backed the human rights cause and efforts to bring to trial suspects accused of atrocities during the dictatorship.
In other rare incidents linked to Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship, graffiti criticizing alleged corruption in the human rights movement appeared on another historic building in Buenos Aires.
In the first incident, a site once used as a secret prison where atrocities were committed against dissidents received several calls saying there was a bomb in the building, a government source said.
Police evacuated the center and bomb squads searched site but no suspicious object was found, so activities returned to normal after a few hours, a source in the center said.
The Space for Memory is housed in a former military school in the capital, a symbolic site for the human rights movement that campaigns for justice for dictatorship victims.
Critics have accused some in the human rights movement of using it to secure real estate deals.
Mauricio Macri, favorite in the polls to win Sunday's run-off election, said during campaigning that he would end "robberies in human rights" a reference to those who are allegedly profiting dishonestly from the movement.
On Friday graffiti referring to the sensitive issue were found near two other historic buildings linked to the dictatorship.
Opposite the Mansion Sere, formerly a site of secret atrocities, a slogan appeared in red that said: "On November 22 the robbery ends."
Other slogans were painted on a building in Moron, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, which was once a torture center and now serves as a memorial site.
Human rights groups say that around 30,000 people disappeared during the dictatorship, and that some Argentines do not want the crimes investigated.
The state Human Rights Secretariat condemned Friday's incidents as "another attack on the memory of victims, two days before an election."
Polls show Macri, a right-wing businessman, could end 12 years of left-wing government by the Peronist movement if he beats his rival Daniel Scioli in Sunday's vote.
Outgoing president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, an ally of Scioli, has backed the human rights cause and efforts to bring to trial suspects accused of atrocities during the dictatorship.
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