Disappeared children of Argentina's Dirty War
The "Disappeared Children of Argentina's Dirty War" refers to the tragic fate of children who were taken from their parents during the military dictatorship in Argentina, which lasted from 1976 to 1983. During this period, approximately thirty thousand individuals deemed political dissidents were forcibly disappeared, including many young children and pregnant women who were detained and gave birth in captivity. The military often placed these children for illegal adoption, leaving families desperate to uncover their fates. In response to this crisis, organizations such as the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo emerged, advocating for the rights of these children and seeking justice for their families.
The Grandmothers played a crucial role in raising awareness of the disappearances and called upon international support to help identify lost children through genetic testing. Their efforts led to the establishment of a national genetic database, which facilitated the reunion of some families. By employing innovative genetic techniques, including grandpaternity testing, scientists were able to determine family connections even when the children's parents were no longer alive. The combined efforts of the Grandmothers, human rights activists, and international scientists have resulted in the identification and return of over sixty grandchildren to their rightful families by 2002, highlighting the enduring impact of this dark chapter in Argentina's history.
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Disappeared children of Argentina's Dirty War
DATE: Disappearances occurred between 1976 and 1983
THE EVENT: From 1976 to 1983, a military dictatorship was in power in Argentina, and about thirty thousand people whom the government considered to be political dissidents or active opponents of the military were taken from their homes by force, interrogated, tortured, and killed. The “disappeared” included young children captured with their parents and pregnant women who were imprisoned until they gave birth. Many of these children were adopted by families associated with the military. Later, relatives of the disappeared filed inquiries with the courts to try to determine the fates of their children and grandchildren. An organization founded by grandmothers of disappeared children successfully lobbied for changes in Argentine laws to allow grandpaternity testing and to establish a national genetic database to aid in identifying children who had been taken from their families.
SIGNIFICANCE: The efforts of the Asociación Civil Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (known in English as the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo) were essential in the recruitment of the help of international scientists in identifying children who had been separated from their families. The scientists established an Argentine national genetic database and confirmed the validity of tests for grandpaternity. By conducting genetic testing, scientists were able to reunite a number of families.
In 1977, the women of the Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) began to gather weekly in the main public square of Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires, to protest the military government’s practice of “disappearing” opponents. These women, mothers of missing sons and daughters taken by the government, succeeded in bringing international attention to Argentina’s “dirty war.”
Also in 1977, twelve grandmothers of children who had disappeared because of government actions formed the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Although the military dictatorship was still in power, the Grandmothers began to protest and to gather information about the disappearances of their children and grandchildren. Their focus was on locating the missing children; they launched an international campaign to gather support and met with human rights organizations from around the world. By 1982, the Grandmothers had collected information on some three hundred grandchildren whose parents had disappeared. They knew of the possible whereabouts of fifty grandchildren. After his election to the presidency ended military rule in Argentina in December, 1983, Raúl Alfonsín appointed the Comisión Nacional Sobre la Desaparición de Personas (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons) to investigate what had happened to the disappeared.
Application of
The Grandmothers sought help from international scientists. Among those who worked on the problem of identifying the missing children were Dr. Fred Allen, an expert on blood groups; Dr. Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, a population geneticist; Dr. Mary-Claire King, a geneticist; and Pierre Darlu, a mathematician. The scientists took an approach that had never been taken before when they applied the idea of grandpaternity testing—that is, they used the same methods used for standard paternity testing to determine the genetic relationships between children and their grandparents.
For the identification of related individuals, genetic markers that are passed from parent to child and that are highly variable in the population are needed. Initially, the scientists used immunological techniques to identify the grandchildren; they examined blood samples from suspected stolen children, their possible grandparents, and other living relatives. No samples were available from the parents of the children because they had been murdered by the military. The genetic markers examined were blood group antigens from red blood cells, such as ABO, Rh, and Kelley, and from white blood cells, such as human leukocyte antigens (HLAs).
King and other scientists also worked to determine what additional genetic markers could be used to identify the children. Mitochondrial (deoxyribonucleic acid) is isolated from blood. The sequence of mitochondrial DNA is an excellent genetic marker for tracking grandpaternity because mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited—that is, it is passed from a mother to all of her children. Fathers do not pass mitochondrial DNA to their children. Also, one part of the mitochondrial genome that does not contain any genes is the most variable sequence of the human genome.
The mitochondrial genome is a 16,569-base-pair circle that is present in many copies in each mitochondrion, and there are many mitochondria per cell. Because many copies of mitochondrial DNA exist in each cell, it is easier to obtain mitochondrial DNA than it is to obtain nuclear DNA in many cases. In the use of mitochondrial DNA to identify individuals, the highly variable region of mitochondrial DNA is sequenced, and the sequence is compared with the sequences of known persons in a database. Some mitochondrial sequences are unique to particular maternal lineages and can be used to identify grandchildren in these lineages even if the parents cannot be tested.
When the scientists found genetic matches for suspected stolen children, the Grandmothers, the courts, and psychologists worked together to try to ensure that the children were not subjected to further trauma. According to Argentine law, a child could not be considered matched to a family unless pointing to the relationship existed in addition to findings from genetic testing indicating a greater than 95 percent probability of a relationship. By 2002, information about more than two hundred grandchildren had been gathered, and more than sixty grandchildren had been identified and returned to their relatives.
Bibliography
Arditti, Rita. Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
Budowle, Bruce, Marc W. Allard, Mark R. Wilson, and Ranajit Chakraborty. “Forensics and Mitochondrial DNA: Applications, Debates, and Foundations.” Annual Reviewof Genomics and Human Genetics 4 (September, 2003): 119-141.
Erlich, Henry A., and Cassandra D. Calloway. “Using HLA and Mitochondrial DNA Polymorphisms to Identify Geographic/Ethnic Origins: The Mammoth Lakes Case.” Forensic Magazine, June/July, 2007, 32, 34-35, 37.
Owens, Kelly N., Michelle Harvey-Blankenship, and Mary-Claire King. “Genomic Sequencing in the Service of Human Rights.” International Journal of Epidemiology 31 (2002): 53-58.
Penchaszadeh, V. B. “Abduction of Children of Political Dissidents in Argentina and the Role of Human Genetics in Their Restitution.” Journal of Public Health Policy 13 (Autumn, 1992): 291-305.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Genetic Identification of Children of the Disappeared in Argentina.” Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association 52 (Winter, 1997): 16-22.
Scheffler, Immo E. Mitochondria. 2d ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.
Tondo, Lorenzo, Elena Basso, and Sam Jones. "Adopted by Their Parents' Enemies: Tracing the Stolen Children of Argentina's 'Dirty War'." The Guardian, 16 Jan. 2023, www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jan/16/tracing-stolen-children-of-argentina-dirty-war. Accessed 13 Aug. 2024.