Myriam Bregman (born 25 February 1972) is an
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
lawyer, activist and politician. While studying a degree in law at the
University of Buenos Aires
The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one o ...
in the 90s, Bregman joined the
Socialist Workers' Party (PTS), a
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
Argentine party of which she is among the most prominent members.
She was one of the lawyers who took the case of
Jorge Julio López, an eyewitness of the Dictatorship who disappeared in 2006 after testifying against
Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz, who was sentenced to life imprisonment and charged with genocide accusations for the crimes he committed during the Dictatorship.
In 1997 she founded the Professionist Center for Human Rights (CeProDH), which defends and assesses laid off and unemployed workers and intervenes against repression and impunity, and the Justicia Ya! (Justice Now) Collective, who are appellants in cases of
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
during the dictatorship's regime of
state terrorism.
She first ran for a seat in Congress in 2009 and for
Chief of government of the City of Buenos Aires
, image = R larreta.jpg
, alt = Mayor of Buenos Aires
, incumbent = Horacio Rodríguez Larreta
, incumbentsince = 10 December 2015
, style = No courtesy, title or style
, residence = Buenos Aires ...
in 2011 and 2015 by the
Workers' Left Front
The Workers' Left Front – Unity ( es, Frente de Izquierda y de los Trabajadores – Unidad, FIT-U) is an alliance of initially three Trotskyist parties in Argentina formed to fight a number of elections in 2011, announced at a press conference ...
(comprising, among others, the PTS).
In 2015 she became a national deputy for
Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...
, holding the seat by rotation for the Workers' Left Front (FIT) until 2016 and being widely supported by several sectors. Since December 2017, she is a deputy in the legislature for the City of Buenos Aires, where she's president of the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission. She also ran as vice-presidential candidate for the Front in the
2015 Argentine general election
General elections were held in Argentina on 25 October 2015 to elect the President and National Congress, and followed primary elections which were held on 9 August 2015. A second round of voting between the two leading candidates took place on ...
, coming fourth. In 2021 she was again elected to the national Chamber of Deputies, this time for the
Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
Cases on working people's rights
Myriam Bregman has participated in defending and assessing employed and unemployed workers in Buenos Aires City and in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Neuquén.
Since 1998, she is a lawyer of the
Zanon tile factory in Neuquén, being among those who acted in the historical case where the Zanón tile company was found guilty of issuing an "offensive lock out".
She also stood out in the defense of Catalina Balaguer, a female
PepsiCo
PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...
worker and activist who was fired unjustly and was later reincorporated although she was not formally a union delegate ("de facto delegate"). Bregman also represented PepsiCo workers against the illegal closure of the Vicente López factory on June 20, 2017, and denounced attourney Gastón Larramendi, who ordered the factory's eviction a week earlier.
Cases against state repression and persecution
Bregman has participated in several court cases defending activists and workers from police repression and political and trade union persecution. She is also part of Carla Lacorte's team of lawyers. Lacorte, victim of repression herself, is also a member of the CeProDH along with Bregman. Bregman also participates in the case investigation of
Federal Police agent Américo Balbuena, who infiltrated social organizations to spy on them.
Cases on crimes against humanity
Bregman participated among the appellants of the first trial made since the re-opening of the cases of crimes against humanity perpetrated by criminals of the Argentinian Dictatorship, that of former Buenos Aires police chief
Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz, where Justicia Ya! La Plata in 2006 accused him of committing
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
. In the final stages of the trial, one of the eyewitnesses,
Jorge Julio López, disappeared; afterwards, a case on his disappearance was opened and remains so. Bregman was also an appealing lawyer during the trial against Jorge “Tigre” Acosta, on the
ESMA case.
She intervened on the oral trials against crimes committed in the Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy (ESMA mega-case) against prefect Héctor Febrés (2007), and in the second trial against 18 genocide criminals, representing, among others, the case of
Rodolfo Walsh
Rodolfo Jorge Walsh (January 9, 1927 – March 25, 1977) was an Argentine writer and journalist of Irish Argentine, Irish descent, considered the founder of investigative journalism. He is most famous for his ''Carta Abierta de un Escritor a la Ju ...
, Raimundo Villaflor and organisations such as the Former Disappeared Detainees Association (2009-2011).
Myriam Bregman was also an appealing lawyer during the oral trial against
Cristian Federico Von Wernich in La Plata (2007), accusing him of crimes against humanity committed in Campo de Mayo, the “Floreal Avellaneda” case in San Martín, Province of Buenos Aires (2009), "Seré Mansion" case (against Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata repressors in 2008), among others.
In 2008 she was awarded by the Human Rights Commission of the Lawyers School of Buenos Aires.
In 2016 Carlos Blaquier and Ledesma executives sent her an intimidatory letter as she prepared to travel to Jujuy to receive complaints of grave human rights violations in the province of then-governor
Gerardo Morales.
Bregman denounced that she received phone call threats in her office after her intervention in the Labour and Budget Commission where she questioned the first employment bill because she considered that it was a measure to legalise outsourcing.
Bregman is also among the people who founded and manage the Professionist Center for Human Rights (CeProDH).
Women's rights activist
On 31 May 2018, Myriam Bregman assisted to the 15th day of debate on legalizing
Abortion in Argentina in the Argentine Congress to present her position in favour of legalizing abortion by declaring that "we are proud to see many young people with the green handkerchief as their banner". She also took the opportunity to criticise the Catholic Church and La Plata Archbishop
Héctor Aguer
Héctor Rubén Aguer (born 24 May 1943) is the Roman Catholic Archbishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of La Plata, province of Buenos Aires.
Early life and ordination
Aguer was born in Buenos Aires on 24 May 1943. He was a member of the parish S ...
, who "has as their transmission band local governors, who negotiate with women's rights"''.
''
Personal life
Bregman is a
Jewish atheist
Jewish atheism refers to the atheism of people who are ethnically and (at least to some extent) culturally Jewish. Contrary to popular belief, the term "Jewish atheism" is not a contradiction because Jewish identity encompasses not only religiou ...
.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bregman, Myriam
1972 births
Living people
Argentine activists
Argentine women activists
20th-century Argentine lawyers
Socialist Workers' Party (Argentina) politicians
Women members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies
Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Buenos Aires
Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Buenos Aires Province
Jewish Argentine politicians
Politicians from Buenos Aires
University of Buenos Aires alumni
21st-century Argentine women politicians
21st-century Argentine politicians
Members of the Buenos Aires City Legislature
Women local politicians
Argentine women lawyers
21st-century Argentine lawyers