MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo identify the 130th child of disappeared parents

Javier Matías Darroux Mijalchuk, who was born in 1977, told reporters that at some point he was aware he had been adopted

The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo released this week the identity of the son of a young couple disappeared while under arrest during the bloody Argentine 1976/1983 military dictatorship. Javier Matías Darroux Mijalchuk thus became the 130 child, now a full grown man, to have been identified by the human rights group.

The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo has been working for decades trying to identify and locate the children of dissidents who were kidnapped, killed or disappeared by the military government . Human rights groups in Argentina estimate that anywhere between 9.000 and 30.000 people were killed or disappeared during that tragic period, imprisoned, tortured and murdered for their political beliefs.

Likewise among the detained hundreds of young mothers or about to give birth had their babies stolen and given in adoption, before they were eliminated. These children grew up never knowing about their real origin, much less biological parents.

Javier Matías Darroux Mijalchuk, who was born in 1977, told reporters that at some point he found out he had been adopted, but did not know who his real parents were or the circumstances of his adoption, as he was only a few months old when this happened.

While admitting he felt comfortable with his adopted family, he began to suspect as an adult that he may have been the child of disappeared dissidents. That led him to seek out The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, whose members confirmed his suspicion.

“Recovering my identity is for me a tribute to my parents,” Darroux Mijalchuk said at a press conference.

He was especially greatful to his biological uncle, Roberto Mijalchuk, who had searched for him for 40 years. He said he will now seek to learn the fate of his parents, who were disappeared in 1977, and to find the biological sister he suspects he may have.

Hundreds of adopted children remain to be identified, according to the Grandmothers of Plaza dee Mayo, but a DNA data bank, taking advantage of the latest technology has been most helpful in the successful cases.