MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mothers of Plaza de Mayor Leader Hebe de Bonafibi dead at age 93

Hebe's ashes will be laid to rest at Plaza de Mayo at her own request

Hebe Pastor de Bonafini, Argentina's iconic Mother of Plaza de Mayo, died Sunday. She was 93. She had been discharged on Oct. 13 from a La Plata hospital but was admitted again on Nov. 12 after her health deteriorated.

 She had been discharged on Oct. 13 from a La Plata hospital but was admitted again on Nov. 12 after her health deteriorated.
“God called you on National Sovereignty Day... it must not be a coincidence. Simply thank you and see you forever,” wrote Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on social media.

President Alberto Fernández, who was discharged from the Otamendi Sanatorium Saturday after undergoing some tests, decreed three days of mourning for Bonafini's death, for “her memory and her struggle which will always be present as a guide in difficult moments,” according to the Casa Rosada document, which added that President Alberto Fernández “bids farewell with deep sorrow and respect to Hebe de Bonafini, Mother of Plaza de Mayo and tireless fighter for human rights,”

“Claiming truth and justice together with the Mothers and Grandmothers, she confronted the genocides when the collective common sense was going in another direction. With great affection and sincere sorrow, I bid her farewell. Farewell Hebe,” President Fernández said on Twitter.

Bonafini had two of her children missing under the military dictatorship (1976-1983). “Her life and her work, her example of commitment and dedication to popular causes, constitute a legacy that will accompany us forever, guiding us on the path of the defense of Human Rights and Memory, Truth, and Justice but also of the fight against impunity and neoliberalism,” Human Rights Horacio Pietragalla said.

Born in 1928 in a working-class neighborhood in the town of Ensenada near La Plata, Bonafini would have turned 94 on Dec. 4. On December 29, 1942, at the age of 14, she married Humberto Alfredo Bonafini, with whom she had three children: Jorge Omar, Raúl Alfredo, and María Alejandra.

On Feb. 8, 1977, Jorge Omar was abducted in La Plata, and on Dec. 6 so was Raúl Alfredo, in Berazategui. On May 25, 1978, her daughter-in-law, María Elena Bugnone Cepeda, Jorge's wife, followed suit.

In 1979, Hebe became president of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association. Hebe's ashes will be laid to rest in Plaza de Mayo, as per her own request, it was also announced.

“Farewell Hebe. The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association communicates that our president, Hebe de Bonafini, has changed her home, as she always said about her companions who preceded her in leaving. She will remain forever in the Plaza de Mayo, not one step back!,” wrote the Association. “You taught us to walk, now we will follow in your footsteps. #HebeEterna,” it went on.

“There are no words to express my deepest gratitude to the medical team that for so many years assisted and cared for her, as well as to the medical team, nurses, assistants and directors of the Italian Hospital of La Plata, who during the days of her hospitalization were at my mother's side, caring for her with much love and respect. We will continue to meet Hebe in the Plaza and in the struggles of the people!,” Alejandra Bonafini wrote.
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