DNA test reveals grandson of Argentina rights group founder taken during 'dirty war'
DNA test reveals grandson of Argentina rights group founder taken during 'dirty war'
Article by: Associated Press
Updated: August 5, 2014 - 4:45 PM
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — An enduring mystery of Argentina's "dirty war" ended Tuesday with the announcement that a prominent human rights activist has located the son born to her daughter who was killed by the military dictatorship in August 1978.
The identity of the son born to slain student activist Laura Carlotto was confirmed by DNA after the now 36-year-old man came forward to voluntarily take the test, family members said.
Laura Carlotto's mother, Estela Barnes de Carlotto, is founder of the human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. She is among leaders of the effort to seek justice for victims of the dictatorship that ruled the South American country in 1976-83 and to locate hundreds of children taken from their captured parents and illegally adopted by families who supported the dictatorship.
The Argentine military captured, tortured and killed thousands of people in a crackdown on guerrillas and their supporters during the dictatorship.
More:
http://www.startribune.com/world/270040291.html
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Kissinger approved Argentinian 'dirty war'
Declassified US files expose 1970s backing for junta
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
The Guardian, Friday 5 December 2003 21.20 EST
Henry Kissinger gave his approval to the "dirty war" in Argentina in the 1970s in which up to 30,000 people were killed, according to newly declassified US state department documents.
Mr Kissinger, who was America's secretary of state, is shown to have urged the Argentinian military regime to act before the US Congress resumed session, and told it that Washington would not cause it "unnecessary difficulties".
The revelations are likely to further damage Mr Kissinger's reputation. He has already been implicated in war crimes committed during his term in office, notably in connection with the 1973 Chilean coup.
The material, obtained by the Washington-based National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act, consists of two memorandums of conversations that took place in October 1976 with the visiting Argentinian foreign minister, Admiral César Augusto Guzzetti. At the time the US Congress, concerned about allegations of widespread human rights abuses, was poised to approve sanctions against the military regime.
According to a verbatim transcript of a meeting on October 7 1976, Mr Kissinger reassured the foreign minister that he had US backing in whatever he did.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/06/argentina.usa
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6 August 2014 Last updated at 05:57 ET
Argentina Plaza de Mayo activist finds 'stolen grandson'
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Ms Carlotto spoke at a news conference surrounded by some of the families who have already been reunited[/font]
An Argentine activist who searches for people who were snatched as babies by the 1970s military junta has found her own grandson.
Estela de Carlotto said finding her grandson, a victim of the practice, was "reparation" for her and for Argentina.
She said he had come forward for DNA testing because he had doubts about his own identity.
The junta snatched hundreds of babies from their opponents and gave them to sympathisers to bring up.
Ms Carlotto's organisation, The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, was formed to reunite biological parents with hundreds of children born in prisons and torture centres.
'Silent embrace'
Ms Carlotto and her grandson have not yet met face to face, but Ms Carlotto says she is already imagining what it will be like to embrace him.
More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28669697
