Following the passing of a bill to nationalise the university run by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo human rights organization by the Senate, the group’s president Hebe de Bonafini expressed her satisfaction with the decision.
“We are paying everything so that the name of our sons does not remain tarnished,” Bonafini told reporters this morning, adding the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo University has a 14-year history “that has to be maintained after the fraud that hit us in the head.”
“It was very sad after such an effort of the Mothers, of the teachers that stood by us without collecting their salaries for a long time,” Hebe de Bonafini said alluding to the fraud committed by the organization’s authorized representative Sergio Schoklender and his brother Pablo Schoklender.
“It is a very prestigious university; almost all Latin American presidents have come here,” she insisted. “We are paying everything not for us but for the name of our sons.”
Yesterday, the Senate passed the government-sponsored project to nationalise the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo University in a 39-23 vote. The bill will be now debated at the Lower House and, if approved, will change the university’s name to National University Institute of Human rights «Mothers of Plaza de Mayo» to be controlled by the Justice and Human Rights Ministry.
Mothers’ members came together on April 1977 during Argentina’s military dictatorship, aiming to join efforts to find their sons and daughters who had been kidnapped by the bloody regime that ran the country from 1976-1983 and is responsible of 30,000 forced disappearances.
buenosairesherald.com