The president of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini, has released an open letter in which she signals that «it is very important that our children, who we still consider alive, appear as detained disappeared».
Under the title «The disappeared do not vote, the Mothers leader told that «now the elections are coming» it seemed right for her association’s members to recall that «their children are not here», referring to the vote and electoral registers.
She added that before every electoral process, the Mothers visit voting centres and check the registers to see that their children are there and to underline their status as disappeared.
«When Raúl Alfonsin started with the subject of the registers we went to look and we were surprised to see that our children were there, so we decided to go to the places where our children had to vote and we marked their names in red and clarified their status, so nobody could vote in their place.» Bonafini explained at the start of the text.
«It was tough for those of us who had sons, because as women we were not permitted to queue at the male tables. We argued a lot and they put a lot of obstacles in our path, but we still did it. We have always tried to get our children on the registers, but also makign sure no-one can vote in their place,» she continued.
Bonafini also recalled: «We also check the registers of the political parties, because we had been told that some were putting the disappeared as affiliates of one party or another – and that was untrue.»
The president concluded with a promise to keep up the campaign: «Every election we make these trips. The last time there were some [names] that were not on the register, I don’t know why, but since now new registers have been created I hope they will be there. And then, again, the Mothers will check them because it is very important that our children, who we consider still alive, appear there with the status of detained and disappeared.
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