Argentine Activist and Member of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo Dies

A member of the Mar del Plata branch of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, an activist group that fights for truth and justice for the disappearances of their children and grandchildren during Argentina’s military dictatorship, died on Thursday at 92 years old.

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Herminia “Chiqui” Soledad Pereda de Berdini joined the organization in 1977 after her son, Carlos Jose Guillermo Berdini, disappeared. Her son, a member of the Socialist Workers Party, was detained twice in relation to his political activity. The second time, on Nov. 3, 1976, he was never seen again.

When “Chiqui” joined the group in 1977, there were only four women who protested in front of the cathedral in the Mar del Plata. She continued to march every Thursday up until her death.

Upon hearing of the death of Chiqui, the director of the organization, Hebe de Bonafini, offered her condolences for the “unbreakable” Chiqui, who was “sweet and strong at the same time.”

The Madres and Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo hold weekly protests in Buenos Aires’ central square in front of the presidential palace on Thursdays to commemorate the victims of the U.S.-backed dirty war that disappeared or killed some 30,000 people, and to demand action on other social issues.

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The group began protesting after they were denied an audience with dictator Jorge Videla on April 30, 1977, and have met non-stop since. Now, their members have expanded their fight to denounce human rights abuses and neoliberal regimes around the world.

The women inside the organization wear a signature white handkerchief over their heads as a symbol of their grief and struggle to find their lost children and grandchildren.

They have also promoted trials against military members involved in the thefts as part of a systematic plan of state terrorism in Argentina. The group has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize and in 2011 received the Felix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize awarded by UNESCO for their work on human rights.

“From this next Thursday on, Chiqui will always be in our Plaza de Mayo and she will be stronger than ever in our hearts,” de Bonafini said.