121st Disappeared Grandson Found From Dictatorship in Argentina

The Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo, a human rights organization in Argentina dedicated to finding abducted children during the military dictatorship, announced Thursday during a press conference they have found grandson 121.

RELATED:
Argentina Human Rights Activists Celebrate 39 Years of Protest

"We have 40 years of love to give you," said Ramiro Menna to his newly found brother. "We want to hug you. We're waiting for you."

The younger Menna didn't want to be named yet and asked for time, so he can understand his new identity, according to his family.

"We don't want to reveal his identity if he doesn't want to. I know he has two children and that he's bald with a beard, like me," said his older brother.

"The anxiety is immense, and we know that the road you have to walk is difficult. But the sooner the better," Menna said.

They are both sons of Ana María Lanzilotto and Domingo Menna, activists in the Revolutionary Workers' Party, which had launched a rebellion against the regime and were disappeared by military forces.

Ramiro Menna (c), brother of "grandson 121," at the Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo headquarters in Buenos Aires. Photo: EFE

According to the organization, 500 children were stolen and given to other families during the dictatorship and in the following years. The military dictatorship in the 70s abducted leftist and revolutionary women who were pregnant and took away their newborns, in an attempt to cut off any dissident ties in new generations.

Estela de Carlotto, head of the organization announced the newly found grandson will meet with his family this week.

"It's like they are brought back to life or reborn, they are born again as they should have been, free," said de Carlotto.

RELATED:
Argentina's Macri Orders Arrest of Iconic 90-Year-Old Activist

The Madres and Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo hold weekly protests in Buenos Aires’ central square in front of the presidential palace on Thursdays to commemorate the victims of the U.S.-backed dirty war that disappeared or killed some 30,000 people, and to demand action on other social issues.

A batch of over 1,000 pages of newly-declassified documents released in August shed light on the U.S. role in forced disappearances, political killings, and torture under the reign of terrorism during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. The dirty war in Argentina has been called a “genocide” against political dissidents.

The group began protesting after they were denied an audience with dictator Jorge Videla on April 30, 1977, and have met non-stop since. Now, their members have expanded their fight to denounce human rights abuses and neoliberal regimes around the world.

RELATED:
Macri Guts Human Rights Agency That Helped Find Stolen Children

The women inside the organization wear a signature white handkerchief over their heads as a symbol of their grief and struggle to find their lost children and grandchildren.

They have also promoted trials against military members involved in the thefts as part of a systematic plan of state terrorism in Argentina. The group has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize and in 2011 received the Felix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize awarded by Unesco for their work on human rights.