Who were the Madres de Plaza de Mayo under Argentina's dictatorship?
The dictatorship and the Madres de Plaza de Mayo
La dictadura y las Madres de Plaza de Mayo
30 April 1977–10 December 1983. On 24 March 1976 the Argentine armed forces seized power and ran a secret war against anyone they called subversive: people were kidnapped, held in clandestine…
Draft: not yet checked against its sources.
Where: Río de la Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
What happened
On 24 March 1976 the Argentine armed forces seized power and ran a secret war against anyone they called subversive: people were kidnapped, held in clandestine centres, tortured and 'disappeared', and about 500 babies were given to other families. On Saturday 30 April 1977 fourteen women whose children had vanished met in the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the government house, to ask together where they were. Told by the police to keep moving, because the state of siege banned gatherings, they walked in pairs around the pyramid in the square, and have done so every Thursday since, in white headscarves. In December 1977 three of the founders, including Azucena Villaflor, were themselves kidnapped and killed. Human rights groups speak of 30,000 disappeared; the official commission of 1984 documented 8,961 cases.
Say it
Desde 1977 las Madres de Plaza de Mayo caminan cada jueves pidiendo verdad y justicia.
Since 1977 the Madres de Plaza de Mayo have walked every Thursday asking for truth and justice.
Why it matters
The Madres, and the Abuelas who search for the stolen grandchildren, turned a square into the world's symbol of a mother's resistance to state terror and gave Spanish the word 'desaparecido' in its modern meaning. 'Memoria, verdad y justicia' is now a public holiday.
Read about it
Connected
- The May Revolution in Buenos Aires (25 May 1810)
- The Conquest of the Desert (1878–1885)
- The Conquest of the Desert (1878–1885)
- Perón, Evita and the birth of Peronism (17 October 1945–September 1955)
- Perón, Evita and the birth of Peronism (17 October 1945–September 1955)
- The coup of 11 September 1973 in Chile (11 September 1973–11 March 1990)
- The return to democracy (1977–1990)
- Argentina's December 2001 (19 December 2001–6 January 2002)
- Franco is moved from the Valley of the Fallen (24 October 2019)
Sources
- A 44 años de la primera ronda de Madres de Plaza de Mayo — argentina.gob.ar
- 24M: Día Nacional de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia — argentina.gob.ar
- Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo — argentina.gob.ar (Secretaría de Derechos Humanos)