Led by founder Hebe de Bonafini, 88, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were joined by thousands of supporters in Buenos Aires with the four-decade milestone seeing the increasingly frail but resolute members of the group continue their push for justice.
The human rights group gathers on a weekly basis outside Argentina’s presidential palace La Casa Rosada demanding answers from the government as to what happened to their children who went missing during the country’s military dictatorship, between 1976 and 1983.
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo was founded on April 30 1977 when 14 women came together to protest the ruling dictatorship installed by Jorge Rafael Videla, challenging the regime at the height of its power.
In protesting the Videla regime, they risked the same fate as their activist children who were tortured, killed or disappeared without a trace with the generals laughing off their demonstration.
BIt's estimated that between 10,000 and 30,000 people were believed to have been abducted by either the regime or right-wing death squads during the Dirty War, with the weekend’s protests highlighting the endurance of the marchers.
“Thirty thousand reasons to keep on fighting” one sign read.
Videla was prosecuted in 1985 for human rights abuses and crimes against humanity, joining nearly 700 others who have been convicted for similar crimes during the military dictatorship.
