The Argentinian activist of human rights dies, aged 106

Argentine human rights activist Rosa Roisinblit died at the age of 106, according to her organization.

She was a honorary president and founding member of the grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, a group that looked for children stolen during the Argentine military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983.

“We only have words of gratitude for her dedication … and the love with which she looked for grandsons and granddaughters until the end,” the campaign group said in a press release.

Some 30,000 people have been killed or disappeared during the “dirty war” of Argentina. The children of opposition activists detained were seized and abandoned for adoption.

Rosa Roisinblit was born in 1919 in Morises Ville, a city of Jewish immigrants in the center of Argentina.

She worked as obstetrician and moved to Buenos Aires in 1949, where she married in 1951.

After the military coup of March 1976, the junta moved to eradicate the opposition. Tens of thousands of activists have been torn from raids and detainees from illegal detention and torture centers.

Many were thrown into the sea on notorious “death flights”. It is estimated that 500 of their babies have been stolen.

The pregnant girl of Roisinblit, Patricia, son-in-law José Pérez Rojo and the 15-month-old granddaughter Mariana, were kidnapped in 1978. The couple had been leftist activists.

The family was transferred to a school, known as Esma, which was the largest detention center in Buenos Aires.

Patricia Roisinblit was kept alive long enough to give birth to her son in a basement. The couple’s bodies have never been found. Mariana was returned to Rosa, who raised her.

The newborn was given to an air intelligence officer to discuss.

After the abduction of his family, Roisinblit joined the grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and was treasurer for six years before working as vice-president from 1989 to 2022.

His grandson was found in 2000 by her sister Mariana and through the work of the grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.

He had been given the name Guillermo Francisco Gómez by adoptive parents: Francisco Gómez and Teodora Jofre.

He found Rosa and Mariana, after the DNA tests confirmed that they were linked.

Roisinblit was in the courtroom in 2016, when Goméz was imprisoned for life for the kidnapping of Guillermo. Jofre was sentenced three years in prison separately.

Later that year, Omar Graffigna, the former Air Force chief, and the former intelligence officer Luis Trillo were sentenced to 25 years for the kidnapping and torture of Patricia and José.

They were part of the hundreds of soldiers and leaders prosecuted for human rights abuses.

At the age of 96, Roisinblit attended the trial with Guillermo and Mariana.

A year later, she told the AFP news agency: “This injury never heals … But to say that I stop? No, I will never stop.”

It is estimated that 140 babies were gathered with their biological parents through the work of organizations like the grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. Hundreds are still missing.

“We are fighting, but the heroes are our children who have raised themselves against a fierce dictatorship and have given their lives for a better country,” said Roisinblit.

Guillermo is a lawyer for human rights and works with the grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, continuing the legacy of his grandmother.

In an article on X on Saturday, he said: “My grandmother died, and beyond the sadness that I feel, it comforts me to think that after 46, she finds my mother and with her great love, my grandfather Benjamín.”

Rosa Roisinblit is also left in mourning by the granddaughter Mariana Eva Perez, writer, playwright and academic.