Argentina withdraws Maurice Papon's distinction received during the dictatorship

Maurice Papon, March 15, 1958 in Paris. © AFP

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Argentina officially withdrew this Tuesday, May 9, from Maurice Papon the Order of May, a distinction that had been awarded to him in 1979 by the Argentine dictator Jorge Videla when he was Minister of the Budget of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

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When he arrived in Buenos Aires on 1 April 1979, Maurice Papon was the first European country to make an official visit to Argentina since the coup d'état of 24 March 1976, recalls our correspondent in Buenos Aires, Théo Conscience. As a sign of recognition, General Videla, a member of the ruling military junta and de facto president of the Argentine nation, named him Grand Cross of the May Order of Merit, one of the country's highest honours.

Forty-four years later, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez officially stripped him of the decoration on Tuesday for making himself "responsible for acts incompatible with the spirit and purpose" of the May Order. This refers in particular to Maurice Papon's participation in the deportation of Jews between 1942 and 1944, while he was secretary general of the prefecture of Gironde.

The former prefect of police of Paris, who died in 2007, had been caught up by his collaborationist past from 1981, before being convicted in 1998 for complicity in crimes against humanity. He was tried for the deportation of 1,690 Jews from Bordeaux, where he was secretary general of the prefecture during World War II. He was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.

Alberto Fernandez explained that the measure is part of "our commitment to keep alive the demand for justice for the Holocaust against the perpetrators of these atrocities, and to be at peace with our conscience so that no genocidaire can wear an Argentine decoration on his chest." The decree, which will appear Wednesday in the Official Bulletin, will be followed by a ban on the entourage or descendants of Maurice Papon to exhibit or use the decoration, and a request for restitution.

Reciprocity after the National Order of Merit awarded to Ricardo Cavallo

Argentine Science Minister Daniel Filmus, master of ceremonies Tuesday in Buenos Aires in the presence of the ambassadors of France and Israel, explained to the press that the revocation of Maurice Papon's decoration is part of an act of reciprocity with the France.

Nuestro país tiene y ha tenido un fuerte compromiso con la defensa de los Derechos Humanos. La decisión del Presidente @alferdez de derogar y anular la condecoración entregada al cómplice y colaborador de crímenes de lesa Maurice Papon refuerza esta posición. pic.twitter.com/arEuaxgAYg

— Daniel Filmus (@FilmusDaniel) May 9, 2023

In 2020, President Emmanuel Macron signed a decree withdrawing the medal of the French National Order of Merit awarded in 1985 to Ricardo Cavallo, a former torturer under the Argentine dictatorship, later military attaché at the Argentine embassy in Paris. Ricardo Cavallo, a participant in the sinister "theft of death", was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2011, then in 2017, for disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture under the dictatorship (1976-1983) including the murder of two French nuns in 1977.

► Read also: Argentine dictatorship: the ex-policeman Mario Sandoval extradited to Buenos Aire (in 2019)

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  • Argentina
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