Four decades on and 2, marches later, the mothers are still marching, though some of them must now use wheelchairs. But the mothers β most of them now in their late 80s β warn that the current era of alternative facts and revisionist history poses a new kind of threat for the country.
Now, 40 years later, we have to start all over again. These days, the mothers are hailed as human rights champions around the world and feted by the likes of Pope Francis and the former United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon. The mainstream press was silent, and a large segment of the country sympathized with the dictatorship.
Even listening was dangerous. We needed everyone to know, even if nobody believed us. Instead, they marched two by two, around the Plaza de Mayo in front of the presidential palace every Thursday at 3.
It took another 24 years before forensic anthropologists confirmed that he was one of 30 youths murdered by the army in revenge for the assassination of a general by leftwing guerrillas. After staging a coup in , the military rapidly put into action a plan to crush any potential opposition, eventually murdering some 30, people β almost all of them unarmed non-combatants.
His government suggests that the number of victims may have only been around 9,, citing a provisional figure drawn up by a special commission after the return of democracy in But the military themselves reported killing 22, people in a communication to Chilean intelligence.
