Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo identify 140th stolen grandchild
Estela de Carlotto read a press release at the headquarters detailing the latest identification
The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, the group which identifies children born in captivity to parents illegally detained and forcibly disappeared during the dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, have announced via social media that they have identified their 140th grandchild. They confirmed he is the son of political activists Graciela Alieta Romero and Raúl Eugenio Metz, who remain disappeared.
He was born on April 17, 1977, at the Bahía Blanca “La Escuelita” clandestine detention and torture center, as learned through testimonies from Graciela’s captivity. His mother was five months pregnant when she was kidnapped along with Raúl. They had a one-year-old daughter, Adriana, who was raised by her grandparents and went on to lead the search for her long-lost brother as she grew up. The grandson and his true family learned the big news on Friday.
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Estela de Carlotto, head of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, confirmed the news on Monday by reading a press release at their headquarters, the Casa de la Identidad (House of Identity). Hugs, emotion-filled voices and smiles were present around the room where members of the Abuelas organization, the human rights secretariat, human rights activists and the press awaited the major announcement.
“His sister Adriana always searched for him, always. Raised by her grandparents, always a weaver, she built a network that shelters her, and today she also embraces her brother in a long-awaited reunion,” the press release said.
“For us, this is a blessing to carry on despite the circumstances. Grandmothers announce with great happiness the return of another grandson,” the organization added in the release. “We confirm once again that our grandchildren are among us, and thanks to the constant struggle of 47 years, they will continue to appear.”
According to the information provided by the Abuelas, the parents of the newly identified grandson were originally from Bahía Blanca, a coastal city in Buenos Aires province, but moved to Cutral-Có, Neuquén, fleeing political persecution. They were kidnapped in December 1976, and taken to “La Escuelita” in Neuquén, where they endured torture. They were later transferred to a detention center with the same name but in Bahía Blanca. Raúl was last seen there in January 1977, but Graciela stayed there until after giving birth in April.
The military dictatorship named some of their detention and torture centres “The Little School”.
Adriana Metz Romero joined the Abuelas in their search from a young age, knowing she had a stolen brother somewhere. Today, she is part of the organization’s directive commission. “It’s my turn to be on this side [of the desk],” she said, visibly emotional, during the press conference. “Although I’ve always been in the search, I never imagined this would be like this.”
Adriana confirmed that she spoke on the phone with her brother, who also spoke with Adriana’s son, his nephew. They haven’t met in person yet, but she said he is currently living in Buenos Aires, while she lives in the coastal city Mar del Plata.
Asked by the Herald about her brother’s identity and how the process of identification began, Adriana said that they contacted him to let him know that there were chances of him being the child of dictatorship victims.
“With the information the National Identity Commission (CONADI) gave him, he was asked if he agreed to provide a DNA sample to carry out tests at the National Genetic Database, and he did,” Adriana said. Although her family had been searching for the Metz-Romero baby for decades, CONADI — which is dedicated to investigating cases of child appropriation during the dictatorship — received an anonymous tip that allowed them to more consistently work on a theory that the baby was appropriated. After the investigation concluded in April, they contacted the man and he agreed to provide a blood sample.
“I never lost hope, but I sometimes got scared that maybe he didn’t live to 5 years, or 30. I was going to keep looking for him anyway. But he is 48 now,” Adriana said. In the time he awaited for the results, the grandson checked out the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo website to look at the family groups, and “some pieces of information led him to believe that his family was ours,” Adriana said. “He saw that and imagined it would be positive, but didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to cause false expectations.”
After the press conference, De Carlotto, Adriana and several other robbed grandchildren who had got their identities back changed the number hanging at the Abuelas headquarters that marks how many grandchildren they have found so far, in a frenzy of people chanting, hollering and overall celebrating the new achievement. After speaking with the press, they shared a toast.
Adriana told the Herald that she is not picturing how her relationship with her brother will be like, but confirmed that they will meet in person. “I don’t know how or when, but we will meet, not very far from now.” “I am happy, thinking about all the work that is to come after the identification of my brother, like telling each of the Metz-Romero family that Graciela and Raúl’s son is on this side of the truth,” Adriana said.
The search in her family began as soon as they learned Graciela and Raúl had been kidnapped, filing habeas corpus to demand they appear. They were looking not only for the couple, for also for the baby that was still growing in her womb. Adriana said that her brother’s reaction to learning his true identity was “relaxed” and that their first conversation was “very easy going.”
As part of her search process, in 2009 Adriana opened a blog called “Poncho de Lana” (Wool Poncho) in which she wrote letters to her brother every April 17, his birthday, and told him who she was, how she was searching for him and how much she awaited to find him. Adriana is not sure if he read them, although he told her he saw her blog when he looked up the family name. “Adriana participated in each institutional activity, with the certainty that she would only find her brother by searching for them all. And at the end, there’s a reward,” the press release read.
The search of the Abuelas
The discovery comes after the group announced the identification of the 139th grandchild in January and the 138th in December. De Carlotto spoke with the Herald after the announcement concluded, saying that, for the organization, each new identification “is a victory of good over evil.”
“They are victims. They suddenly have a new name, a new family, and sometimes they endured mistreatments from those who pretended to be their parents,” De Carlotto said. “There are many more missing, but little by little, and hopefully with good governments that will come, we will be able to find more grandchildren.” De Carlotto questioned the defunding of memory policies by the government of Javier Milei, whom she called “the enemy” and said that he is “shattering” the country.
“We have a terrible history in Argentina, and the appropriation of children was used to dominate us,” De Carlotto said. “But they forgot that we have hearts and souls of mothers and grandmothers to look for them as long as we live.”
The first grandchild taken from their parents to be identified by the human rights organization was Tatiana Mabel Ruarte Britos. Born in 1973, her father was forcibly disappeared in 1976 and her mother the following year. She was identified in 1980.
For those who don’t know, Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 in the context of Operation Condor. The Argentine Military Junta of 1976 was unique among it’s peers. The first years of the dictatorship were very violent, the State engaged in domestic violence against everyone who they deemed political opposition (Communists, Peronists, Socialists, Social Democrats, Liberation Theology Church, etc), not against the militant individuals only but also against their families as well, which explains the large number of disappearances (30,000). It is known as the dictatorship that ouright stole babies from their captive mothers and gifted them to friends of the regime, the fate of many of these parents remain unknown (hence the Desaparecido status). These babies were forced to start a new life under a completely artificial family to them, many of them questioned their origins and came in contact with the Madres or Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and their extensive database, where they would find their true origins and reunite with what remains of their family.
Many of the criminals involved in the Military Junta (from Generals all the way down to police officers) are still being tried by the Justice, but they are done so in public civilian courts, something that is unique in the world. The Argentinian case is also unique in the sense that a civilian government pardoned military and police officers who carried out tortures, disappearances and killings. In 1986 two laws were put into place, the Full Stop Law and the Law of Due Obedience, which literally made prosecuting military and police officers illegal. And then, it was the civilian government under Néstor Kirchner who declared both laws unconstitutional in 2005 which allowed for the reopening of the trials (A civilian court handled the first round of trials in 1985 against the main members of the Junta).
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