The Vice President of Argentina and President of the Argentine Senate, Victoria Villarruel, visited the Senate of Spain accompanied by the President of the institution, Pedro Rollán, on Monday in Madrid. During her visit, Villarruel expressed her concern about the reduction of sentences for ETA terrorists as a result of political agreements between various parties. She criticized the legal reform in Spain that will allow ETA prisoners to deduct years served in other EU countries from their sentences, a measure supported by the PP and Vox but opposed by left-wing and nationalist parties.
Villarruel made these remarks during her participation in the International Conference of Victims of Terrorism in Vitoria, organized by the United Nations and the Spanish government. She highlighted the issue of impunity for terrorist actions in Argentina, stating that state policies have justified the actions of armed organizations responsible for thousands of victims without recognition of their human rights. Villarruel emphasized the need to change this history of inequity, mentioning the recent approval of a law in Argentina recognizing 13 victims of terrorist attacks by the Senate, which she presides over.
As the granddaughter, daughter, and niece of military personnel, Villarruel has built her political career on advocating for victims of left-wing terrorism in South American countries during the 1960s. She has argued that there was a civil war in Argentina in the 1970s and has equated the violence of groups like the montoneros with state terrorism. Villarruel has been critical of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and has downplayed the crimes of the Argentine dictatorship, denying the existence of 30,000 disappeared persons in her country.
Despite being described as an “official” visit, Villarruel did not meet with any members of the Spanish government during her time in Spain. She was received by the President of the Senate, Pablo Rollán of the PP, and the Secretary General of the Ibero-American Organization, Andrés Allamand, whose office is located in Madrid. The visit of the Argentine Vice President comes at a time of diplomatic crisis between the two countries, following comments made by the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, about the wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
In May, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled and ultimately withdrew the Spanish ambassador in Buenos Aires due to the controversy. Despite the vacancy of the Spanish Embassy in Buenos Aires, Minister Albares has had several conversations with his Argentine counterpart, Diana Bondino. Additionally, a Spanish military plane recently evacuated several Argentine citizens from Lebanon. The ongoing diplomatic tensions between Spain and Argentina have added complexity to Villarruel’s visit to Spain and highlighted the challenges in the relationship between the two countries.
