Tribute series for Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
On October 13, 1980, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Argentine Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. Forty years after receiving the award, and leading up to December 10, the date he received the prize in Oslo, the Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM) is organizing a series of events to honor and celebrate a life dedicated to the defense of human rights and activism for peace and justice. These events are being held jointly with the Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ) and the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).
Forty years ago, while Argentina was still ravaged by state terrorism, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Adolfo Pérez Esquivel as the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. “He is one of the Argentinians who has brought a little light into the darkness,” the Committee emphasized. Pérez Esquivel had been detained for 14 months and had survived the death flights. The award highlighted his human rights activism, his commitment to nonviolence, and his dedication to the peoples of Latin America.
A few years before receiving his award, in 1973, he founded the Peace and Justice Service, which currently also has branches in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Colombia, El Salvador, and Uruguay. Pérez Esquivel is also a founding member and president of the Provincial Commission for Memory.
In his Nobel acceptance speech, he said: “I cannot accept it in a personal capacity, I accept it in the name of the peoples of Latin America because my work is not individual, it is that of many people who are working in the most inhospitable places on the continent.”
On Wednesday, October 14, Argentine President Alberto Fernández received Adolfo Pérez Esquivel in the White Hall of the Government House, in a tribute and recognition that the Argentine State had never made to date.
Furthermore, the "A Life for Peace" campaign was also launched. This is an open call for all those who knew Adolfo to share their memories of him. Photographs, letters, videos, audio recordings, and personal accounts will be included in a collective exhibition that will open on December 10th. The initiative seeks to recover and give visibility to the anonymous voices and anecdotes of those who shared the spaces and journeys of Pérez Esquivel, who for over 40 years has accompanied and supported countless demands and struggles of people suffering injustice and violence. Materials can be sent until November 30th to the email address: secretaria@comisiónporlamemoria.org
As part of these activities, the CPM also plans to release documents on Adolfo Pérez Esquivel held at the National Security Archive, which demonstrate how the U.S. Embassy in Argentina closely followed his award. Through an agreement signed last year, the CPM has access to these CIA, FBI, and State Department files, which are part of the latest declassification by the U.S. government.
In addition, during these two months, various talks and conferences will be held with leading figures in human rights activism and colleagues of Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
Provincial Commission for Memory
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