The enforced disappearance of persons in Latin America
Under the slogan: “40 years after the return of democracy in Argentina: The forced disappearance of people in Latin America and the defense of human rights, within the framework of current strategies of domination”, on Wednesday, March 22, at the Memory and Human Rights Space of the former ESMA, Nora Cortiñas, from Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Founding Line of Argentina shared a meeting with Karina Batthyány, Executive Director of CLACSO, Luz Marina MonzónFormer Director of the Search Unit for Missing Persons in Colombia, Constanza Ramírez Molano, President of the Other Voices of Colombia Association, with the coordination of Ana María Careaga from the Space for Memory Institute, which was sponsored by the UNESCO International Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights.
Nora Cortiñas reviewed the 47 years of struggle of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, from their first march during the dictatorship on April 30, 1977, the doors that were closed to them, the times they ended up in a police station, the years of demanding truth and justice, the importance of keeping the memory alive and ensuring that new generations take up the torch of this struggle. She explained that "the repression in the 70s responded to the power's need to implement neoliberal policies" and said that "we mothers learned from the activism of our children," in her case, from her son Gustavo, who was kidnapped on April 15, 1977, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires and remains disappeared.
Previously, Karina Batthyány stated that 2023 marks “40 years since the return to democracy in Argentina, but also 50 years since the coup d'état of June 27, 73, in my country, Uruguay, and half a century since the coup of September 11 in Chile and the death of Salvador Allende in La Moneda Palace. That was a time when the sinister Operation Condor, a campaign of persecution, detention, torture, murder, and the exchange of information and captured activists between Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, spread its wings over the Southern Cone of our continent.” She called for working to consolidate popular movements and remaining vigilant against the advances of anti-democratic and anti-rights right-wing and far-right movements.
In turn, Luz Marina Monzón prepared a report on her participation as head of the Search Unit for Missing Persons in Colombia, a titanic task in light of the consequences of internal conflicts that result in thousands of displaced and disappeared persons in the South American country.
Constanza Ramírez Molano created a deeply moving moment when she presented the video of her performance “Vivificar” (To Revive), which she produced and directed in 2015. The performance, featuring an orchestra performing in a Bogotá shopping mall, brings to light the crime of enforced disappearances in her country. “It’s a way of remembering, raising awareness among citizens, and contributing to building peace in Colombia,” she explained.
In closing the debate, Ana María Careaga emphasized that “the last dictatorship in Argentina represented both continuity and rupture: continuity in the succession of alternating periods between military coups and formal democracies, and rupture due to the methodology employed, which left a tragic toll in our history: 30 disappeared persons; stolen babies; political prisoners; internal and external exile; and a country devastated politically, socially, economically, and culturally—consequences that still need to be addressed because of their scope and the damage inflicted on society as a whole. Therefore, this recent experience is not unrelated to the current suffering of our people, and it is essential to examine it for the future.”
On that occasion, Karina Batthyány, along with Erick Fuentes from the Valparaíso Cultural Park in Chile, presented Nora Cortiñas with the poster "Right to memory and resistance" for the 40th anniversary of the return to democracy in Argentina, with a text by "Norita" herself, which is accompanied by a video and a virtual reality intervention.
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