MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Plaza de Mayo Grand-mothers head finally gets to know her kidnapped grandson born in captivity

Estela de Carlotto, president of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo

The 83-year-old head of the Argentine human rights movement which works to track down babies stolen by the country's brutal 1976-83 military dictatorship has found her grandson after a 35-year search, a relative said on Tuesday.

Estela Carlotto, who leads the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo group, was able on Tuesday to meet her kidnapped grandson, said a relative, who said the identity was confirmed through genetic testing.

“The result of the test was positive. We have found my nephew after 35 years,” said Kivo Carlotto, son of Estela, whose sister Laura disappeared during the dictatorship while pregnant.

While the family was overjoyed to find their missing relative, it was also “a terrible feeling,” Kivo Carlotto said, who said the test results confirming who his mother was, was also “a terrible shock” for his nephew.

A friend of Laura Carlotto who was detained with her by the regime told her family that she was killed a short time after giving birth to a son, whom she had planned to name Guido.

Records show Laura was two months pregnant when kidnapped by Argentine security forces on November 26 1977, and according to testimony she gave birth to Guido in the Military Hospital in 26 June 1978. After the birth, Laura was returned to the 'La Cacha' clandestine detention centre, without her baby, and murdered on August 25 of that same year.

Allegedly Guido grew up in Olavarria, province of Buenos Aires under the name of Igancio Hurban, and is currently 36. He is a pianist, married and director of a music school “Hermanos Rossi”.

His public biography indicates that as a teen ager he studied music at the Avellaneda Municipal Music School and later continued classic music studies in “Ernesto Mogávero” conservatory in Olavarria. He has edited several records and is relatively well known in Argentine classical music circles. Guido also declares to be a fan of River Plate, one of the two largest Argentine football teams.

The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and a sister group, Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, have been leading a nationwide effort in Argentina to reunite an estimated 500 children who were taken from leftists and government opponents during the dictatorship.

As many as 30,000 people “disappeared” are presumed to have been murdered during Argentina's “dirty war” against leftists.

In many instances, their children were taken by ruling families and raised as their own.

The Grandmothers group, which was founded in 1977, said it has managed through the years to locate scores of missing children, who now are adults.