Grandmothers oppose Milei's decision
by María Josefina Arce
The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo are not stopping their work for truth and justice, and in the last few days they have announced the good news of the return of the identity of Grandson 138, stolen from his parents, who were imprisoned during the last military dictatorship in Argentina, from 1976 to 1983.
It is known that in ESMA, Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada, and other detention and torture centers, clandestine maternity hospitals operated and 500 children were separated from their mothers.
Estela de Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, said that this new restitution is proof, once again, of the consequences of state terrorism and of the need to give importance to human rights policies so that crimes against humanity cease.
However, this emblematic organization is currently facing serious obstacles in the face of the dismantling of human rights mechanisms by the government of Argentine President Javier Milei.
Milei denies the crimes against humanity committed during the military dictatorship in the South American country, where more than 30,000 disappeared prisoners have been registered, a figure he tries to ignore.
The President wants to erase history. His actions jeopardize the search for stolen babies, who have the right to know their true identity.
Last August, for example, he closed the Special Unit for the Investigation of the Disappearance of Children during the Dictatorship, some of whom were given to military families, others abandoned or sold.
Created in 2004 under the mandate of Néstor Kirchner and attached to CONADI, the National Commission on the Right to Identity, this unit accelerated the search for children taken from their parents, since it had the authority to access archives and documents of the Armed Forces and the Security Forces.
Therefore, without the Special Unit, CONADI, created in 1992, is seriously compromised in its contribution to the search that the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been carrying out for almost five decades.
This is not the only blow from the authorities. They have also drastically reduced the budget allocated to the National Genetic Database, which is essential to finding the children stolen during this dark period in Argentina's history.
The government of ultra-rightist Javier Milei is obstructing the process of memory, truth and justice. It is trying to maintain impunity for the crimes against humanity committed by the military dictatorship, such as the theft of children born to mothers in prison, who grew up with a false identity and have the right to know who their fathers were.
