Hebe de Bonafini

She is considered Argentina’s conscience and admonitory voice: Hebe de Bonafini, spokeswoman and president of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, has lost three of her six children to a cruel and bloody regime. During the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976–83) 30,000 people were abducted, tortured and killed – and to this day the Disappeared cast a sombre shadow on the country.

In 1977, together with other women, Hebe de Bonafini began her fight against oblivion and for life, a fight that has continued for almost 30 years now. Every Thursday the Mothers take up their silent march on the square in the centre of Buenos Aires in remembrance of their daughters and sons. With their silent physical presence they have given the demand for explanations regarding the fate of the Disappeared an ever louder voice. The spokeswoman has always refused to assume a political office but as an inspired orator has travelled the world in her dedicated fight for human rights, and the long march of the Madres has become a permanent political force whose impact reaches way beyond the Argentine boundaries. The Mothers had their share in the fact that the vile methods of terror regimes were globally outlawed and offered up fierce resistance against the amnesty laws introduced in their home country to foreclose legal prosecution of the culprits. It was only in 2005 that two of these laws were repealed by President Néstor Kirchner – a personal victory for 77-year-old Hebe de Bonafini of life over death and a great hope for the future.

The Madres de Plaza de Mayo have received numerous awards, amongst them the Sakharov Prize in 1992 and the UNESCO award for peace education in 1999.