The vice-president of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association was born in Argentina in 1925 | Photo: Télam

Buenos Aires, April 22 (RHC)-- The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association in an official note informed Wednesday the death of the vice president of their organization, Mercedes de Meroño known as Porota, at noon at the age of 95 at her home in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Devoto, after being ill for some months.

"She was one of the Mothers who had gone through torture and horror twice.  Because she was in the Spanish Civil War, where her father was shot for being anti-Franco and revolutionary," highlighted the statement saying goodbye to Mercedes.

"And then she came here, and when she was well and happy, married, with her daughter and grandchildren, her daughter was kidnapped.  And Spain came back to her mind.  And there she was, with the two horrors and terrors, which never left her.  Whenever she spoke, she remembered them," said the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association in describing Mercedes' life.

The organization, an example of resistance, asserted that they will keep Porota's legacy based on the popular work and the demand for Justice.   "Every time someone leaves, a piece of ourselves is gone.  But we know the commitment we have with our children and that we must continue", they added.

Mercedes de Meroño's only daughter, Alicia Meroño, had been kidnapped and disappeared by the Argentinean dictatorship on January 5, 1978 in a house on Benito Juárez Street, in Devoto, when she was 31 years old.

The vice-president of Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo was born in Argentina in 1925 but emigrated to Spain in 1931, with her father, mother and brother.  Colás de Meroño was murdered in the town of Tudela, Navarra.  Porota was only 11 years old were her father was killed.