Their last march: The mothers of the disappeared stop.

international | crime and justice | other press Friday January 27, 2006 10:50 by iosaf

The members of the association of mothers of the disappeared "plaza Mayo" of Argentina held their last march of resistance yesterday.

In a statement to press their president Hebe de Bonafini, affirmed :-

"We no longer have an enemy in the houses of government"...."with the changes in South America [the elections of / governments of] Fidel, Chávez, Lula, Tabaré, Bachelet. If we do not see that we are blind, we must defend them"
She expressed the opinion that Kirchner's government has offered them the fullest redress possible for the crimes comitted during the Argentine dictatorship(1976-1983) and the near "cover up" in the folowing regime (1983-1989).
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On thursday April 30th 1977, a handful of women assembled on Plaza Mayo in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires with photographs of their children who had disappeared.

And on the 10th of December 1981, some 70 women marched in dignified silence surrounded by 300 police.

It was the beginning of the "marches of resistance", which have taken place now for 1,500 weeks over 27 years.

The mothers' average age is now around 80.
Their president is 77. They have become symbolic of the dignity and suffering not only of the victims of military rule in their own country but of the victimhood of their generation of South Americans.

During the economic and social crises of 1998-2002 the group (counting around 400 mothers in all of Argentina) became the rallying point for protests in the capital and in no small sense, they had became the "mothers" of Argentine resistance.

& so it has ended with the singing of the internationalle. But merchandise is still for sale, books are still published, and the influence of this group may never be underestimated. For not all mothers would have found the courage to do the same.

http://www.madres.org/