Estela de Carlotto received the honour in Montevideo (Photo: Pablo Porciuncula / AFP / Telam)
The Latin American Association for Integration (ALADI) has named Estela de Carlotto an Outstanding Citizen.
The president of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo is the first person to receive the title, which was awarded “in recognition of her tireless work to promote and respect of human rights, as well as her permanent fight for Memory, Truth, and Justice”.
Carlotto received the distinction in a ceremony at the organisation’s headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay, yesterday.
In her acceptance speech, Carlotto said: “I am just an ordinary woman, one of many – thousands – who is fighting in this world for others, for those who suffer, for those who are in need, and for their freedom.
“What mother wouldn’t look for her daughter when she doesn’t return? She would look for her forever. And if the daughter was pregnant when taken, you would look for both generations. I have been inspired by my love for my daughter, and for this grandson, and for her friends who I knew.”
The Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo is a human rights organisation that has the goal of finding the children of those disappeared during Argentina’s 1976-83 dictatorship. An estimated 500 women were pregnant when they were kidnapped, and forced to give birth in captivity. Their babies were then adopted, and the women were subsequently killed. The organisation was founded in 1977 by mothers of the disappeared, and it has so far found 115 of the missing grandchildren, including Carlotto’s own grandson, Ignacio Guido, who was found on 5th August this year.
Carlotto said she would continue her fight to find the hundreds of grandchildren who remain unidentified.
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