Dark Times Won't Return to Our Region: Estela De Carlotto

In the most recent edition of RT's 'Talking with Correa', the former Ecuadorean Rafael Correa president spoke with Estela de Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo Movement, about their legacy that for over 40 years has reunited thousands of families separated by Argentina's military dictatorship (1976-1983).

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“I can´t understand how could some people be so mean, so perverse and how could they separated children from their parents, new born babies from their mothers. You are one the many victims. Laura, your daughter, was 22 years old… I have a 22-year-old daughter and I can't imagine myself in that situation,” Rafael Correa said to his guest at the beginning of the conversation.

Carlotto's own daughter, Laura, gave birth to a baby while detained, and like so many others, she was murdered after the baby was born. In that period there were more than 700 clandestine detention centers, where the militaries tortured and killed without mercy.

As a mother you never lose faith and that for a long time they (all the mothers from the victims) expected they would come back home one day, “we were naive,” Carlotto said, adding that she was able to find Laura's body thanks to a friend that was close to the regime.

It wasn't till 2014 that her grandson was found by the Grandmothers' movement. He's known as Guido, the name Laura picked for him. So far the movement has identified 130 persons, that were separated from their real families for political reasons.

Correa and Carlotto coincided their criticism at another important player that helped to hide what was happening in Argentina during that period: the media. “For example, once they published an article about 'five terrorists' that were shot during a confrontation. The ʻcriminals' were in fact a family: mom, dad and their three children,” recalled the human rights activist.

“The Catholic church participated too, the hierarchy, over all. They blessed the guns, applauded the murders. Most of us were believers and we used to go to church to find consolation. And what did they do? They took our confessions to obtain information about our children and then betrayed us,” Carlotto remembered. 

Later on the former president referred to current subtler ways that far-right regimes are returning to the geopolitical scenario wondering “what if dark moments come back to Latin America?,” to what Carlotto responded that it is the peoples' job not to let that happen again.

“Despite they call us ʻcurroʼ (in local slang means fraud) like president Macri said in his presidential campaign. Despite that this hurt us, we laugh at that silly word. Every time we find a grandson, it´s a party all over the country,” one of the most important human rights activist in Argentina concluded with greater optimism.