Grandmothers continue to recover lost children in Argentina

Estela Carlotto, president of Grandmothers from Plaza de Mayo, says the recovery of Belén means "the success of truth." Photo: Grandmothers from Plaza de Mayo

"Another grandchild found us... we make it clear that our grandchildren have not been abandoned; they have the right to recover their roots and their history; they have relatives who are constantly engaged in searching for them," say the Grandmothers from the Plaza de Mayo, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Thanks to the efforts of Church World Service partner Grandmothers from Plaza de Mayo (Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo), another young adult, Belén, now knows her true identity. Some 500 children were kidnapped during the Argentine military dictatorship between 1976 and 1982, most taken by the government and given to persons related to the military forces, and many of these children's loved ones continue to search for them today.

Belén's mother and father, Rosa Luján Taranto and Horacio Antonio Altamiranda, were abducted on May 13, 1977, from their home in Florencio Varela, in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires. Rosa was seven months pregnant at the time of the abduction. Their two-year-old, Natalia, and three-year-old, Christian, were at home with them. Thankfully, the abductors handed the children to a neighbor, who in turn took them to their paternal grandparents. Belén was born while her parents were in captivity, and was taken from her mother at birth.

Belén always knew that she was adopted, and with the support of friends and relatives, she came to think she might be a child of disappeared people. In 2005 she called the Abuelas' toll-free number to find out about her identity. Working with the National Commission on the Right to Identity (CONADI), Abuelas had genetic testing performed that proved Belén was Rosa and Horacio’s daughter. Belén recently traveled to Buenos Aires and met her biological family, including her Grandmother Irma Rojas, who has been working with Abuelas for years to try to find her missing grandchild.

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