Arrest of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo leader Hebe de Bonafini, a Macri opponent, thwarted by supporters
Internationally renowned Argentine human rights activist Hebe de Bonafini, who co-founded the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in 1977 to demand answers for the thousands of young people "disappeared" by the dictatorship at time, was nearly arrested today in Buenos Aires. She was shielded from arrest by a large crowd of supporters, however, after closer inspection of the warrant revealed that the order authorized a search of the headquarters but not her specific arrest.
The incidents took place at 1:00 p.m. local time when a team of Federal Police arrived at the headquarters of the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo facing Buenos Aires' Congressional Square with the misrepresented search warrant signed by Federal Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi - an ally of right-wing President Mauricio Macri.
Bonafini is a vocal opponent of Macri for his austerity policies as well for his tacit support for those accused of Dirty War Atrocities, 50 of whom have been transferred from prison to house arrest under Macri's watch. Inflation has doubled and around 200,000 have been laid off since Macri took office.
The outspoken 87 year-old activist suffered an asthma attack during the incident but was reportedly in good health. She proceeded to the Plaza de Mayo, 11 blocks to the east, to lead her iconic Thursday march - held every week to demand justice for the up to 30,000 killed during Argentina's Dirty War against dissidents in the 1970s - and was then driven home by supporters.
Martínez de Giorgi's warrant was pursuant to a 2011 embezzlement case against a subcontractor, Sergio Shoklender's Meldorek S.A., who had been hired by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in 2008 to build public housing and had been awarded a $300 million federal earmark to do so. Schoklender, who befriended Bonafini and joined her foundation in 2001 after serving a jail sentence for murdering his parents 20 years earlier, is alleged to have embezzled up to $60 million of these funds to cover gambling debts and other personal expenses from 2008 to 2011.
Bonafini's signature on documents related to the contract was found to have been forged, and though Schoklender himself was indicted, the case was vacated in 2013 and remanded to Judge Martínez de Giorgi. This morning Bonafini failed to appear at a court summons pursuant to the case, instead providing the judge a letter explaining her decision.
"We (the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) have been persecuted by what passes as our system of justice since the very beginning: February 8, 1977," she said. "The courts, however, weren't nearly as energetic during the 168 times I appeared before a judge to demand information as to the whereabouts of my two sons or my daughter-in-law."
"We have cooperated with this investigation in every way, submitting 60 boxes of files, 40 hard drives, and everything else that was requested from us - without the courts ever examining them. I appeared voluntarily at your office a few months ago, only to discover the case had not moved forward at all."
Supporters of Bonafini maintain that political motives lurk behind today's incidents. "Macri tries to put on a show every day," Congressman Mariano Recalde of the populist Front for Victory (FpV) said. "He does this to distract from the real problems this administration is causing people with their economic shock policies."
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