ARGENTINA-HUMAN RIGHTS/GRANDMOTHERS Grandmother of a disappeared announces finding her biological grandchild

Record ID: 140647

  • Title: ARGENTINA-HUMAN RIGHTS/GRANDMOTHERS Grandmother of a disappeared announces finding her biological grandchild
  • Date: 31st August 2015
  • Summary: ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MOTHER OF WALTER HERNAN DOMINGUEZ, WHO WAS KILLED IN DICTATORSHIP, MARIA ASSOF DE DOMINGUEZ, SAYING: "I searched everywhere, I would go, asking, asking where one place was, where another place was. The girls wanted to come with me but I didn't want them to because it was dangerous. We continued to search until today and thank God we have achieved something."
  • Embargoed: 15th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADYWJCZE59VQWFFOVPU4CBECKR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a human rights organisation committed to finding children who were kidnapped under Argentina's dictatorship, held a news conference on Monday (August 31) announcing that a woman whose parents were killed in the 1976 -1983 military junta had discovered her true biological identity.
    The woman's parents, Walter Hernan Dominguez and Gladys Cristina Castro, were kidnapped from their home in 1977 while her mother was six months pregnant. They were never heard from again.
    The woman, who has asked to remain unidentified for the time being, was born in 1978 and was immediately taken from her mother, who was killed, and given another identity, a common practice during the country's brutal dictatorship.
    "With great joy we inform you that we have found the daughter of Walter Hernan Dominguez and Gladys Cristina Castro, who was born in 1978 while her mother was being held in captivity [by the military dictatorship]," said Estela de Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
    Both of the woman's paternal and maternal grandmothers, Maria Assof De Dominguez and Angelina Catterino attended Monday's news conference.
    Maria Assof de Dominguez said she never stopped searching for her missing family members.
    "I searched everywhere, I would go, asking, asking where one place was, where another place was. The girls wanted to come with me but I didn't want them to because it was dangerous. We continued to search until today and thank God we have achieved something," she said.
    In 2009 the National Commission for the Right to Identity (CONADI) began investigating the case after receiving an anonymous tip and information from the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
    Earlier this year CONADI called the woman to inform her of the possibility of her birth origins.
    The woman later agreed to undergo genetic testing to determine her biological parents.
    De Carlotto said the woman welcomed the results.
    "The National Genetic Databank informed CONADI (National Commission for The Right to Identity) that the woman is the daughter of Walter and Gladys, and our association informed the two grandmothers and CONADI informed the new grandchild who welcomed the news. The right to identity has occurred once again in this country with the help of a state committed to promoting rights and a big portion of the society that doesn't want to suffer the abuses of a terrorist dictatorship again," she said.
    To date, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been able to recover 117 children whose parents were disappeared by members of the dictatorship.
    Human rights groups say up to 30,000 people were kidnapped, tortured and assassinated during the dictatorship, which began when the late Jorge Rafael Videla and two other military leaders staged a coup on March 24, 1976.
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