ABSTRACT
The military junta that controlled Argentina from 1976 to 1983 authorized the kidnapping of tens of thousands of ordinary people, including students, who were taken from their homes, schools, and workplaces and never heard from again. Those suspected of disloyalty were denied their rights to legal processes and never had a chance to prove their innocence. Held in hundreds of clandestine prisons (we later learned), the unofficial prisoners included pregnant women, whose newborns were sometimes placed in the homes of their captors and raised by the very people who had killed their mothers. Nearly all prisoners were brutally tortured then executed. Some were drugged and thrown into the Atlantic Ocean or Rio de la Plata from helicopters; their bodies washed ashore in neighboring countries or were never found. Virtually everyone in Argentina was afraid to criticize the regime, lest they be next to
CONTENTS
disappear. Yet, in this context emerged human rights activists, who demonstrated against these abuses in broad daylight, right in the heart of Buenos Aires.
