Latest news with #GrandmothersOfThePlazaDeMayo
BBC News
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Witness History Argentina's national genetics bank created to identify stolen babies
In 1982, Argentine geneticist Victor Penchaszadeh was living in exile in New York when he received a call that would change the course of his career. Two founding members of the campaign group, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, were asking for his help to find their kidnapped grandchildren. Between 1976 and 1983, Argentina was under military rule. During this period, thousands of mainly young, left-wing people were forcibly disappeared - taken to clandestine detention centres, where many were tortured and killed. Hundreds of babies were born in captivity. Their mothers were later murdered, and the children were often given to families with ties to the regime - and never told their true identities. The Grandmothers travelled the world, desperately asking scientists one question: Without the presence of the parents, could their blood be used to identify their lost grandchildren? Dr Penchaszadeh was the first to say yes. He tells Vicky Farncombe how that answer led to the creation of the world's first national genetic data bank—and the eventual reunion of 140 grandchildren with their real families. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the 'Indian Titanic' and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy's Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they've had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America's occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP. (Photo: Estela de Carlotto is reunited with her lost grandchild Ignacio Hurban. Credit: Reuters)
BBC News
08-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Baby stolen during Argentina's military rule found after 48 years
A man who was forcibly taken from his captive mother as a newborn during Argentina's military rule and raised by strangers has been identified after 48 years, thanks to a DNA test. The man's sister, Adriana Metz, who had been searching for her long-lost brother for decades, said she had spoken to her sibling for the first time last Metz was able to find him with the help of the campaign group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which has long tried to reunite the estimated 500 babies stolen by the military junta with their families. Ms Metz's brother, whose identity has not been revealed publicly to protect his privacy, is the 140th baby the group has found. In a news conference, the founder of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, read out a statement while members of the group clapped and cheered."Today we welcome the son of Graciela Alicia Romero and Raúl Eugenio Metz," the 94-year-old said, while sitting next to a beaming Adriana the man, whom the group referred to as "Grandchild 140", was not present, the group gave details of how he had been separated from his parents were both political activists in Bahía Blanca, a city in Buenos Aires province. His father, Raúl Metz was one of 10 brothers, who followed in his father's footsteps and worked on the railways, while also being an active member of the Communist mother, Graciela Romero, studied economics and joined a Marxist guerrilla group, the PRT-ERP, with Metz shortly before the two got married. The couple had a daughter, Adriana, and Ms Romero was five months pregnant with a second child when the two were arrested at their home in December after seizing power in a military coup in March 1976, the junta tried to eradicate any opposition to its rule by rounding up of thousands were snatched in raids and held in clandestine detention were tortured. Human rights groups estimate that some 30,000 people were killed or forcibly disappeared between 1976 and the end of military rule in 1983. Survivors told the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo that Graciela Romero had given birth to a son on 17 April 1977 while in captivity in the clandestine detention centre known as "La Escuelita" (Little School). Fellow detainees say that both Romero and Metz were physically and psychologically tortured while in captivity, before being one-year-old daughter Adriana was first looked after by neighbours who eventually handed the infant to her paternal the Romero and Metz family searched for the couple and its son for are listed as disappeared and are feared to be among the many left-wing activists who were killed by the military Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo said it was an anonymous tip-off which had eventually led the group to "Grandchild 140".Working with the National Identity Commission (Conadi), an official body created to find children abducted by the military junta, they approached the man in April and offered him a DNA test. He agreed to take the test, and on Friday Conadi informed him that he was indeed the baby snatched from Graciela Romero in Metz said that during their phone call last week, he said that he had been raised as an only child."I told him 'hey, here I am'," she said at the press conference. Adriana added that she was eager to meet her brother, who lives 400km (250 miles) away, in person to hug de Carlotto, who found her own missing grandson in 2014, said the fact that the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo had managed to locate one of the missing after 48 years showed how crucial their work was even after so many decades. ,
