International
Decades on, search continues for Argentina’s ‘stolen’ children
AFP
The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo are getting old. Every day the hopes of finding their grandchildren, who were stolen and given up for adoption under Argentina’s dictatorship, are fading.
As many as 500 children were taken from their imprisoned mothers, most of whom then disappeared under the country’s brutal 1976-1983 military rule.
Most of the children were gifted to people close to the dictatorship, keen to have them raised as regime loyalists.
Only about 130 have so far been found, and the search for the others — now adults in their 40s and 50s — continues.
The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo is an organization founded in 1977 by women trying to find their arrested daughters — and the babies they bore in captivity.
These “abuelas” take their name from the Plaza de Mayo square in Buenos Aires where brave women held protests to demand information on the whereabouts of their loved ones. They did so in vain.
As the original grandmothers get older, the organization has since been populated by a younger generation of researchers and councillors.
The rights body holds regular public meetings in the hopes of reaching people who may have questions about who they are — questions that can be difficult to confront — and convincing them to come forward.
Those who successfully go through a verification process can have their stolen identities “restituted.”
But it is an increasingly difficult endeavor. As time goes on, those who think they may be the children of disappeared women are ever less likely to come forward.
“They come to us in various stages of doubt, some have carried the burden in silence for 20 years, sometimes more, without talking to anyone — not even their spouse,” Laura Rodriguez, coordinator of the Grandmothers’ identity project told AFP.
Doubts can be triggered by a lack of physical resemblance to their parents, the absence of photos of their mothers while pregnant, or holes in the family history.
Some make several appointments for a consultation, but never show up.
Since June 2019, there have been no new restitutions, due in large part to the coronavirus pandemic putting the brakes on the Grandmothers’ activities — research and interviews with potential victims.
Six of the original grandmothers died during the pandemic.
‘Leap into the unknown’
At Moron, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Buenos Aires, six outreach meetings are planned by the Grandmothers and Argentina’s human rights ombudsman for the coming weeks.
But taking that first step is not easy.
“It is a leap into the unknown,” said Guillermo Amarilla Molfino, once known as “Grandson No 98” who said it took him years to seek help and then go through the restitution process.
He was reunited with his brothers, and has acted as an adviser to the Grandmothers outreach team.
“There are many fears, there is guilt, this guilt that makes us stay quiet: ‘Why do I doubt my parents, why do I betray those who gave me food, a roof over my head?’” he remembers of his own experience.
“Silence can become an ally with which one lives,” added Molfino. And finally accepting you are not who you thought you were can “feel like handing over your life” to someone else.
It is a difficult task for the researchers too, said Luciano Lahiteau, one of the Grandmothers team.
One needs to carefully balance an empathetic shoulder, he explained, with the “duty, not necessarily pleasant, of… picking out the reliable information from what a person tells us.”
Lottery, or loss
Lahiteau and other researchers take the volunteers’ stories and documentation, when available, and check these against civil and hospital registers, and evidence gathered from military trials.
If evidence for a match turns up, DNA can be cross-checked with a data bank holding genetic information on many, though not all, of the families searching for a missing grandchild.
When a match is found, “it is like winning the lottery!” said Rodgriguez.
But more often than not, hopes are dashed.
“We receive a lot of people who are not children of disappeared” women, said Rodriguez.
Yet, even for those who go through the process in vain, “it does a lot for identity,” said Lahiteau.
“It makes it possible to recognize: ‘OK, I am someone who has doubts about my identity; I have the right to try and find out where I come from,” he explained.
“Really, every person comes out of the process better than they entered,” added Rodriguez.
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(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 19, 2011, the president of the human rights organization Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini (C), and other members of the association, are pictured during a gathering after the Argentine Congress recognized the group on its 35th anniversary, in Buenos Aires. - The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo are getting old. Every day, the hopes of finding their grandchildren stolen and given up for adoption under Argentina's dictatorship are fading. (Photo by Maxi FAILLA / AFP)
International
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Mexican authorities dismantled a clandestine laboratory containing 2.5 tons of methamphetamine in the southeastern state of Chiapas, seized a warehouse with more than four tons of chemical precursors in Guerrero (south), and intercepted a trailer in Tijuana attempting to cross into the United States with 2.7 tons of drugs.
Omar García Harfuch, head of the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), reported on Saturday via social media that agents from the Criminal Investigation Agency of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR), along with representatives from the Defense Secretariat, Navy (Semar), National Guard (GN), and SSPC, disabled the methamphetamine production lab in Chiapas and confiscated 2.5 tons of the drug.
A statement specified that the agents secured 2.5 tons of methamphetamine, barrels containing substances used to manufacture synthetic drugs, a firearm, and four trucks. In another operation in Guerrero, authorities located over four tons of chemical substances.
The discovery took place on a property in the community of Margarita Maza, Juárez, used to store materials for synthetic drug production. Sufficient evidence was collected and presented to a control judge who authorized the intervention of the property.
In Chiapas, authorities also seized more than 300 barrels and containers with chemicals for making synthetic drugs, as well as various metal containers and devices.
International
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The National Assembly of Venezuela expressed its support this Saturday for President Nicolás Maduro, condemning the United States’ increase in the reward offered for his capture as an “act of aggression.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Thursday that Washington had doubled the reward to $50 million for Maduro’s capture, labeling him as one of the “world’s largest drug traffickers.”
“We reject the absurd and desperate actions announced by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, which are clearly illegal and lack any real basis, beyond being a delirious attempt of aggression against the president (…) and against our rebellious and brave people,” said the Assembly leader, Jorge Rodríguez, while reading a letter he said was unanimously approved by the deputies.
“It is precisely President Nicolás Maduro (…) the protector of the strong democracy that shelters us and the leader who firmly upholds the rule of law and justice,” Rodríguez continued. He is also Venezuela’s chief negotiator in talks with Washington.
Bondi accused Maduro of using “terrorist organizations like the Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa cartel, and the Cartel of the Suns to introduce lethal drugs and violence” into the United States.
“In 25 years of revolution, we have resisted and advanced despite constant imperialist aggressions. They have not succeeded, and will not succeed, with crude sanctions, criminal blockades, or senseless threats in diverting the noble path the Venezuelan people charted in the free elections of July 28, 2024, in which Nicolás Maduro was elected President of the Republic,” the statement read.
The Venezuelan opposition alleges fraud in those elections and claims victory, and as a result, has boycotted the 2025 legislative, regional, and municipal elections.
International
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Last Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration doubled the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest, raising it from $25 million to $50 million, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on social media platform X.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that labeling the Cartel of the Suns as a terrorist organization allows for a strategic shift in dealing with the Venezuelan regime, as it is now also considered a direct threat to U.S. national security, according to El Espectador.
In an interview with The World Over on EWTN, Rubio said the designation enables the U.S. to “use intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, or any other element of American power to go after them.” He stressed this is no longer just a law enforcement matter, but a national security operation.
When asked at the White House whether he believes it is worth sending the military to combat Latin American drug cartels, Trump responded:
“Latin America has many cartels, a lot of drug trafficking, so, you know, we want to protect our country. We have to protect it.”
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