Children of the “Disappeared”

Children of the "Disappeared"

In the long list of disappeared persons, there were more than 300 children. Some of them were taken with their parents; others were born in clandestine detention centers.

The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo (Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo) have as their mission to find out what happened to these children.

At first, the grandmothers searched through all existing records and information. It was a slow procedure but they had some success. As time passed and the search became more public, people started to contact them with useful information about the missing children.

The grandmothers organized all kinds of events where photos of the children were exhibited, in order that those in doubt about their identity might be able to find their families.

The most important advance came with the possibility of demonstrating that a person belongs to a specific family by performing genetic DNA tests on grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers or sisters, with a certainty of 99.99 percent (index of grandparent relationship). A genetic data bank was created by national law N23.511 in order to preserve genetic information in the future.

After 30 years of searching, 87 children have been located (2007). Some had been legally adopted by new families, and others had been illegally appropriated by members of the military forces. Sadly, in many cases, the grandmothers found out their grandchildren had been murdered along with their children.