Bomb Threat at Event Led by Argentine Human Rights Activist

Argentine police cleared a hotel where human rights activist Hebe de Bonafini was attending, after they received an anonymous bomb threat Saturday.

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Bonafini, president of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, was participating in a Communication Congress in Mar del Plata. After evacuating the building, police confirmed the threat was a hoax and Bonafini returned to Atilra hotel to finish her presentation.

"In ten minutes the hotel will explode and all these fucking montoneros will die," said a voice in an anonymous phone call to the hotel. Montoneros is the name of a leftist guerrilla group active during the 1960s in Argentina.

The mayor of Ensenada Mario Secco, who was also attending the event, branded the act a form of political persecution against Bonafini. "When many chose to hide, Hebe stood up to the military tanks," he said.

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Argentine judge Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi recently cancelled an arrest warrant against the human rights activist and president of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

The iconic 90-year-old activist was summoned to appear in court to testify in a case that accuses her organization, which searches for missing children from the dictatorship era, of siphoning off public funds from a social housing program.

The activist called supporters to join her in a march of resistance on August 26-27 against the government of Mauricio Macri.

The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo have held a weekly customary march every Thursday since 1977 to commemorate the victims of the U.S.-backed "Dirty War" that disappeared some 30,000 in the country.

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