A sign commemorates the disappeared and the stolen babies during the last dictatorship in Argentina. Photo: X/ @naiz_info.
The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo recalled that around 300 people continue to live under false identities.
On Wednesday, Argentine President Javier Milei suspended the shipment of DNA identification kits to consulates abroad, interrupting a mechanism that had been in place for 20 years to identify children who disappeared during the dictatorship.
The measure was justified by alleged doubts about the legal validity of the samples’ custody, an argument rejected by specialists who highlight the effectiveness of the process using diplomatic pouches since 2005.
The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo issued a statement requesting the Foreign Ministry to reinstate the shipment of kits, noting that the decision hinders the restitution of identity for children of the disappeared who were stolen as infants.
The organization recalled that around 300 people continue to live under false identities, a crime that only ends when the victims and their families have access to the truth about their origins.
The interruption of the “Argentina Searches for You” program was denounced by the International Network of Grandmothers in Europe and other human rights organizations, which warned of the impact on citizens residing abroad.
Simultaneously, memorial sites like the former Navy Mechanics School (ESMA), the main clandestine detention center during the state dictatorship, are being dismantled, and the University of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo is being put up for sale.
Human rights organizations accuse Milei and his vice president, Victoria Villarruel, of maintaining ties with repressors and promoting a denialist discourse that renders crimes against humanity invisible.
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The institutional dismantling includes layoffs at the Foreign Ministry’s Human Rights Directorate and the downgrading of the National Commission for the Right to Identity (CoNaDI), which severs coordination with the National Genetic Data Bank.
The suspension of this program represents a historic break in Argentina’s policy of restitution for stolen grandchildren. It consolidates a setback in justice and human rights, violating the fundamental right to identity.
(Telesur)
