Mirta Acuña de Baravalle (born Mirta Acuña; 15 July 1925 – c.1 November 2024)[a] was an Argentine human rights activist who was one of the twelve founders of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo associations.
The Argentine coup d'état of 24 March 1976 established a terrorist regime that sought to "disappear" their political opponents. Neither another country, the Catholic Church, nor an international humanitarian organization, was willing to condemn the military regime's atrocities. The judicial system systematically rejected legal remedies.[3]
Acuña de Baravalle's daughter, Ana María, who was five months pregnant at the time, and her son-in-law, Julio César, were among those arrested and "disappeared". The last news Acuña de Baravalle heard about her daughter was that she had given birth to a girl while in prison.[4]
At the beginning of 1977, Acuña de Baravalle joined a group of mothers, fathers, and relatives of the disappeared who began to meet in the Plaza de Mayo as a form of nonviolent resistance. The proposal came from Azucena Villaflor, who was later murdered by the dictatorship.[5] This group later became known as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo[6] and she was one of its founders.
In October 1977, she received an invitation from Alicia Zubasnabar, another of the Mothers, to form a group of grandmothers who were looking for their missing grandchildren. She was one of the twelve founding women of Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter are still missing.[citation needed]
In 1986, due to internal discrepancies, Mothers of Plaza de Mayo fractured. Acuña de Baravalle joined the sector called Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Fundraiser Line.[citation needed]
Acuña de Baravalle with the Mother of Plaza de Mayo Elia Espen and Enrique Fukman; stand-in Néstor Pitrola (PO-FIT) during a hearing for the dismissal of César Milani
Acuña de Baravalle's death was announced on 2 November 2024; she was 99.[7]
Notes
↑ Acuña de Baravalle's death was announced at the start of 2 November 2024.
1 2 Valle, Liliana (30 April 2017). "'Ir a la plaza es sagrado'"['Going to the square is sacred']. Télam (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 November 2024. De los cuatro hijos que tuvo con Romildo Baravalle, fallecido de un infarto en 1978 durante la final del Mundial de Fútbol que ganó la Argentina por demoras en la atención médica, Mirta perdió también a su hija menor Verónica porque no pudo soportar la desaparición de Ana María.[Of the four children she had with Romildo Baravalle, who died of a heart attack in 1978 due to delays in medical care, during the World Cup final, which Argentina won, Mirta also lost her youngest daughter, Verónica, because she could not bear the disappearance of Ana María.]
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