The celebration of memory | The Argentine team …

"We feel like our children," said Estela de Carlotto, president of the grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, referring to members of the Argentine team of forensic anthropology who celebrated her 35th birthday yesterday at an event held at the Center for Technological Science. The organization, born in 1984 with the challenge of identifying and restoring the remains of victims of state terrorism, has become over the years an international reference in the field. "All that has been accomplished in Argentina in terms of truth, justice, reparation and memory is the result of the perseverance and mobilization of civil society, who have had to fight in the streets, sometimes accompanied by governments. and not others, "said Luis Fondebrider. , president of the EAAF.

Anthropologist Mercedes Doretti, one of the founders, spoke about the ongoing work of the EAAF in Central America and the United States, devoted to missing migrants and victims of feminicide. He talked about the Border Project to identify people who died in the migration corridors of Mexico or Arizona, but coming from Central American countries. It was therefore necessary to create forensic databases of migrants not located in their country of origin. This work processed nearly 3,500 genetic profiles that identified 198 individuals. "Work for the refusal" mentioned work in the Cocula landfill in Guerrero State, which refuted the official version of the Mexican government claiming that the 43 students of Ayotzinapa had been cremated.

Gabriel Ciancio told the story of his missing brother and sister-in-law, whose remains he recovered and restored the EAAF. "It's not just bones, it allows us to know the truth and cry," he explained. He cited Videla's illusion on "gone, neither alive nor dead", and stressed that "EAFF was able to destroy that phrase and generate hope in families". He praised "the humanity and respect" of the team, which "gave us the inner peace we were looking for, as well as Federico (his nephew), his mother and his father". "Thanks to you, the seed continues to grow," he closed.

Forensic Pathologist Morris Tidball recalled from a video the early stages of EAAF, when he was a translator of founder Clyde Snow. He congratulated the work of Grandmothers, the late founder Isabel "Chicha" Marini, for her first "conception in 1983 of communication with forensic scientists from other countries to bring new ideas and technologies", as well as from the role of CELS in February 1984 Little trial and error, as there is no precedent "cited" a group of scientists to go to Argentina to share their knowledge. "

"A country that does not have science is not a country," said Fondebrider to thank the hosts of Conicet. He recalled "when we were five or six young people in a bar, with a lot of enthusiasm, revolt and desire to do things", and the 35 years that followed "seventy anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists , geneticists, architects, bioinformaticians, physicists and geologists working in Buenos Aires, Córdoba, New York and Mexico ". "We learned that what happened in Argentina happened with different characteristics but the same pain in different countries," he said after citing some of them. This initiative marked an important milestone in the history of the EAAF in 2007, the Latin American People Identification Initiative, which "demonstrated that state-civil society alliances are possible and that thousands of people came to give samples, "as well as the work of identifying soldiers buried as NN to the Malvinas. He felt "the collective process" behind the work of the EAAF, which includes "anonymous people from around the world", and the importance of "serving to judge by bringing scientific evidence to the authors of so many deaths and violence ".

Carlotto recalled the first steps with Mariani "to see if it was possible for our blood to identify the grandchildren". The president of Abuelas, who was aware of the murder of her daughter Laura, said that in 1985 she had asked for the exhumation and had recalled when Snow himself had " took the bones and told me, "Estela, you're a grandmother. "This group of young people who are 35 today is the wonder of the world," he said. "With their respect, their kindness, their sacrifice, they have given us the satisfaction of being". having forged this theme, that's why we felt them as our children. "" How are we not going to give them a workspace? We want them to be close, see them, embrace them, if they need something and offer if there is a reason, "he said." This tribute should serve as an example to the struggle of all who are aware of what we want for our country, "he suggested, stressing" the enormous desire we have when we ask for memory, truth and justice, that we never pbad these pains, neither here nor the world ".