RIP to Madres de Plaza de Mayo member whose powerful testimony grabbed world’s attention

Enriqueta Rodríguez de Maroni, 98, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo mother whose testimony to Dutch television during the 1978 World Cup placed the crimes of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship on the world map, died last Tuesday.

Her children María and Juan, respectively aged 23 and 21, were taken to a clandestine detention centre along with their partners on  April 5, 1977 and never seen again.

"They destroyed our houses and robbed everything we had, including our children, of whom we have never heard anything again. The Army did this. The Army!" the schoolteacher told Dutch television in Plaza de Mayo in mid-1978.

She headed the Madres de Plaza de Mayo between 2022 and 2024.
An even older member of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Dolores 'Lolín' López Candal de Rigoni, aged 100, also died last Tuesday in Neuquén. One of her children Roberto was abducted by the dictatorship on April 16, 1977, and later murdered.

– TIMES/AFP