MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo find 138th grandchild

President Javier Milei's budgetary cuts on organizations like hers represent “one of the most brutal adjustments” by the Libertarian administration, Carlotto stressed while announcing the finding

The social organization Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo announced Friday in Buenos Aires at the Casa por la Identidad, in the Espacio Memoria y Derechos Humanos (formerly the ESMA clandestine detention center) “the happy finding of a new grandson, the 138th.”

Montonero guerrillas Marta Enriqueta Pourtalé and Juan Carlos Villamayor were kidnapped by the military dictatorship on Dec. 10, 1976, when the woman was nine months pregnant and gave birth in captivity. “They were seen in the clandestine center where more than 30 births have been recorded,” Grandmothers President Estela de Carlotto explained. “They were thinking of naming the baby they were expecting Soledad or Manuel,” she added.

“This restitution is, once again, the proof of the consequences of State terrorism in the present and the centrality of Human Rights policies,” she went on while insisting that “the truth always comes to light.”

Carlotto also highlighted the fundamental role of organizations such as the National Commission for the Right to Identity (Conadi), the National Bank of Genetic Data, and the Secretariat of Human Rights in the search for and restitution of identity. “The most aberrant crime of the dictatorship is evident in each restitution,” she stressed while noting that President Javier Milei's budgetary cuts on organizations like hers represented “one of the most brutal adjustments” by the Libertarian administration.

Grandmother Rosa Pourtalé's grandchild was also said to have a half-brother born in 1972 from his mother's previous sentimental relationship. Marta Enriqueta was 30 years old and Juan Carlos was 21 at the time of their abduction. Both were members of Montoneros. “La Negra” or “María” and “El Negro”, “Negrolín” or “Ricardo” were the names by which they were known in the organization. Juan Carlos had given his family name to Diego Antonio, the child born in 1972.