International
Argentine group finds 131st dictatorship-era ‘stolen’ child
| By AFP |
More than four decades after being taken from his parents — activists who “disappeared” under Argentina’s military dictatorship — a man raised by others has learned his true identity, an activist group has announced.
The man is the 131st child “stolen” during the dictatorship era to be identified under a decades-long fight by the group known as the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo — and the first in nearly three years.
His assumed identity has not been divulged.
“We are happy to announce a new restitution of identity,” the Grandmothers said in a statement Thursday after the man’s DNA tests came back.
“As if the end of the year wanted to fulfill all our wishes,” they said in reference to Argentina’s recent World Cup victory, “we celebrate the discovery of a new grandchild, number 131.”
Almost 300 other men and women “living among us with falsified identities” after being taken from their parents under the 1976-1983 dictatorship remain to be found, the Grandmothers added.
Now 44 years old, the man was the son of Marxist activists Lucia Nadin and Aldo Quevedo, from Mendoza, detained in Buenos Aires in October 1977.
Nadin, 19, was nearly three months pregnant at the time.
Grandmothers president Estela de Carlotto, 92, told reporters Nadin likely gave birth to her son at the notorious Navy Mechanics School (ESMA), which served as the country’s largest detention and torture facility.
“We are told that he is a sweet, calm person,” de Carlotto said. “He (did not react) with refusal or sadness” to discovering his true identity.
But she said he would need time to fully digest the stunning news before being presented to the public.
“He just took it as a reality, a new reality for him,” said de Carlotto.
30,000 people lost
The Grandmothers group was founded in 1977 by women trying to find their arrested daughters — and the babies they bore in captivity.
They take their name from the Plaza de Mayo square in Buenos Aires, where women defied authorities to hold protests demanding information on the whereabouts of their loved ones. They did so in vain.
As many as 500 children were taken from their imprisoned mothers, most of whom then disappeared under the country’s brutal military rule.
Most of the children were given to childless people close to the dictatorship, keen to have them raised as regime loyalists.
Many of those aided by the Grandmothers reached out after experiencing doubt over their identity — because of a lack of physical resemblance to their parents, the absence of photos of their mothers while pregnant, or holes in the family history.
This was the first new identification since June 2019. The coronavirus pandemic had put the brakes on the Grandmothers’ research and interviews with potential victims.
Six of the original grandmothers died during the pandemic.
Rights groups say some 30,000 people died or disappeared under Argentina’s military dictatorship.
International
Bolsonaro diagnosed with skin cancer amid coup conviction
Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been diagnosed with skin cancer while serving a historic sentence for attempting a coup d’état. His medical team confirmed that the lesions have been removed and that, for now, he does not require further procedures, though he will need regular monitoring.
On Wednesday, September 17, Bolsonaro’s doctors confirmed the diagnosis. The announcement comes shortly after the former leader was convicted of orchestrating an attempted coup.
According to his physician, Claudio Birolini, Bolsonaro has “squamous cell carcinoma, which is neither the most benign nor the most aggressive form — it is intermediate.” Birolini warned, however, that this type of skin cancer “can carry more serious consequences.”
International
Milei praises Paraguay’s growth, calls Argentina’s last 20 years a ‘decline’
Argentine President Javier Milei praised Paraguay’s economic growth over the past two decades during a speech before the Paraguayan Congress on Wednesday (Sept. 17, 2025), crediting it to incentives that favored capitalism. At the same time, he contrasted that progress with what he described as Argentina’s deepening “decline” during the same period.
“If we compare the last 20 years of Paraguay with those of the Argentine Republic, we will find almost diametrically opposite results,” Milei told lawmakers during a special session of Parliament on the second and final day of his official visit to Asunción.
“While you have not stopped growing, we have deepened our decline. If we understand incentives as the engine of capitalism, Paraguay focused on preserving and strengthening them, while Argentina dedicated itself to chaining, directing, and suffocating them,” the right-wing leader stated.
International
Trump administration launches large-scale immigration operation in Chicago
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump intensified a large-scale immigration operation in the Chicago area with the arrival of additional Border Patrol agents on Tuesday and the presence of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem during a raid.
Noem posted a video on her X account showing the immigration operation, in which DHS reportedly removed “violent criminals” from the streets. The footage shows Noem observing the arrest of a man taken into custody at his home early Tuesday morning at an undisclosed location.
“I was in Chicago today to make it clear that we will not back down,” the secretary wrote. “Our work is just beginning,” she added.
The warning from Noem was echoed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Chief Gregory Bovino, who posted a video on X Tuesday showing multiple Border Patrol vehicles arriving in the city with the caption: “Chicago, we are here!”
Bovino, who led the immigration crackdown in Los Angeles implemented since last June, said the team will remain in Chicago to continue the mission they started in California.
Operation “Midway Blitz” is currently focused on the Chicago metropolitan area and its suburbs. Activists and residents have reported sightings of masked agents and unmarked vehicles in predominantly Latino neighborhoods.
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