Hebe de Bonafini, the iconic co-founder of Argentina’s Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and a staunch fighter against human rights violations committed during the country’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s, died this Sunday (20) at the age of 93.
Bonafini became one of Argentina’s most famous human rights activists when she and 13 other women began looking for their children who were kidnapped by security forces during the dictatorship. She died on Sunday morning, her daughter said in a statement.
She lost her two children during the so-called “Dirty War”, in which some 30,000 opposition activists, academics and political dissidents were killed or forcibly disappeared. Two of her children were never found and are presumed dead.
Since their first protest on April 30, 1977, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a group identified by the white scarves they wore during weekly marches in the capital Buenos Aires, have played a crucial role in defending human rights in the country.
The group of women faced death threats and some were kidnapped and killed.
“They arrested us, they beat us, we came with wigs so they couldn’t identify us,” Bonafini told Reuters in 2007.
Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner mourned Bonafini’s death on Twitter and the government called for three days of national mourning.
“Dear Hebe, Mother of Plaza de Mayo, you are a world symbol of the struggle for human rights and a source of pride for Argentina,” wrote Fernandez de Kirchner.
Bonafini has divided opinion among some for his scathing and sometimes controversial opinions.
She once expressed support for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and said that Pope John Paul II would burn in hell for expressing solidarity with the mothers of jailed separatists from the Basque group ETA.
In 2011, a corruption scandal linked to affordable housing also tarnished Bonafini’s public image.
But more than 40 years after their first march, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo remain a powerful symbol in the South American country, continuing to hold meetings to seek justice.
“The Argentine government and people recognize her as an international symbol of the search for memory, truth and justice for the thirty thousand disappeared,” said President Alberto Fernández’s office in a statement.
“As the founder of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, she illuminated the dark night of the military dictatorship.”
(Reporting by Hernan Nessi; Writing by Maximilian Heath; Editing by Paul Simao)
Source: CNN Brasil
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