grandson, who was taken from her daughter while she was a prisoner of
the military dictatorship in the 1970s. A DNA test solved the mystery,
one of many from the "dirty war" era.
An emotional Estela Barnes de Carlotto, founder of the "Grandmothers
of the Plaza de Mayo", announced that her long hunt had ended.
"Thanks to God, thanks to life, because I didn't want to die without
embracing him and soon I will be able to," the 83-year-old grandmother
said at a news conference covered live on national TV. She has not yet
met him.
The now 36-year-old man came forward to have a DNA test taken and have
the sample compared in a national database because he had doubts about
his own identity, said Guido Carlotto, a son of de Carlotto and the
human rights secretary for the Buenos Aires Province.
The family didn't release the man's name, but Argentine media
identified him as Ignacio Hurban, a pianist and composer who is
director of a music school in the city of Olavarria, southwest of
Buenos Aires.
"The empty picture frames will have his picture," Estela Barnes de
Carlotto told France 24. "I've seen his (photo), it's beautiful, he's
an artist, he's a good guy and he searched for me, he searched for me.
"He achieved what the grandmothers have said, they (the victims) will
find us like we have found them. He came to the grandmothers, he was
received, he went to CONADI (the identity commission) and was received
and listened to and today they told me he's my grandson with a
99.999999% (probability)."
Son of an executed activist
De Carlotto said the test revealed the man is the son of Laura
Carlotto, a university student activist who was executed in August
1978 two months after she gave birth while being held under the
dictatorship's brutal campaign against guerrillas and other opponents
of the regime.
The announcement was major news in Argentina, drowning out coverage of
the recent default forced on the country by a legal dispute with US
investors.
De Carlotto is considered a symbol of the struggle for justice for
victims of the 1976-83 dictatorship that, according to official
statistics, "disappeared" at least 13,000 people. Activists say the
death toll was more than twice as high.
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner called de Carlotto when she
learned the news. "Cristina called me crying ... I told her, 'Yes,
Cristina it's true.' She said, 'What great joy,' and we cried
together," the long-term activist said.
"The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo" believe around 500 children
were seized from people killed by the dictatorship and given to
couples who supported the government. The group has so far helped to
identify 114 of the illegally adopted children in a campaign that has
stirred painful memories.
The Grandmothers pushed for the creation of the DNA database that
enables people illegally adopted to determine their real identity.
Two former dictators were eventually convicted, along with others, of
systematically kidnapping children. Jorge Rafael Videla died in prison
in May 2013 while serving a 50-year sentence. Reynaldo Bignone remains
in prison.
A 'form of reparation'
De Carlotto said the parents who received her daughter's child "may
have done so innocently," not knowing the newborn's origins. "We don't
have the whole story yet, but we are going to get it," she said.
Laura Carlotto was a Peronist militant detained while pregnant in
November 1977 along with the baby's father, Oscar Montoya, a member of
the Montoneros guerrilla group. He also was killed in captivity.
The baby was taken shortly after being born in a military hospital and
his mother was executed soon afterwards, de Carlotto said.
Her daughter was killed with a shot to the head and to the belly to
try to hide the fact that she had been pregnant and may have given
birth, said de Carlotto, who was given the young woman's remains.
De Carlotto said the identification of her grandson is a form of
reparation for the brutality of the dictatorship, but it isn't an end
to the struggle for justice or a resolution of the issue of missing
children.
"The search for the rest must continue," she said.
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