MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Founding member of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo passes away aged 95

“The disappearance of my daughter was a terrible thing, and it still is,” she once said

Aída Bogo de Sarti, a founding member of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora, passed away aged 95 last Saturday, her family announced Monday in Buenos Aires. She became an icon of resistance after her daughter, Beatriz Sarti, was kidnapped and disappeared in May 1977 during the dictatorship (1976-1983). Joining other mothers like Azucena Villaflor in Plaza de Mayo, she turned her personal grief into a lifelong fight for memory, truth, and justice.“We mothers are saying goodbye little by little, leaving the best legacy we can,” the organization mentioned in a statement.

Born in Argentina in 1929, Aída spent her early years in Spain before returning to Buenos Aires, where she worked as a seamstress and became politically active as a Peronist.

After Beatriz, a member of the People's Revolutionary Armu (ERP) guerrillas was captured, Aída endured multiple home raids and tirelessly searched for her daughter, eventually joining the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. “They broke my doors, they took everything they wanted except the furniture, they left everything lying around,” she was quoted as saying in the book Las Viejas (The Old Women).

She remained a vocal advocate, organizing the group’s archive and sharing her story with younger generations. Her death was mourned by fellow activists, who hailed her indomitable legacy in the struggle for human rights.

“One of the things that saved us was being able to meet in Plaza de Mayo,” she said in one of her talks to schoolchildren. “The disappearance of my daughter was a terrible thing, and it still is,” she added. “Any mother who had the same thing happen to her would have taken to the streets. We are the example of having confronted the dictatorship thousands of times.”