Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Resist Police Raid at Headquarters

The mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a human rights group whose main goal is to search for their children disappeared during the Argentine dictatorship, denied state officials entrance into their facility in Buenos Aires on Monday, saying the judicial warrant was illegal.

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The Association Mothers of Plaza de Mayo reported on social media that the officials were sent without prior notice early in the morning.

“I am 90 years old and I have to stand by the door so they won't come in,” said the president of the association, Hebe de Bonafini.

“I don't believe anyone anymore, I believe that they want to steal everything, that's why (…) they arrived early,” she added in a video released by the association on Twitter.

She argued that the judicial warrant was granted illegally with the support of the government, “violating constitutional rights.”

Judge Javier Cosentino is currently investigating the alleged embezzlement of about US$12,8 million in a social housing program named “Sueños Compartidos” initiated by the association.

In an interview with local media, Bonafini said that the conservative government of Mauricio Macri was trying to "destroy the association" and the “memory” of human rights crimes committed during the dictatorship.

The warrant, according to her, “has to do with (Macri's) relation with the military, they want us to accept everything they submit, like the reconciliation.”

The association's lawyers have appealed the judicial order.

Earlier in January, the association condemned the decree that granted in December special benefits to more than 1,000 military officers prosecuted for crimes against humanity and serving their prison sentence at home.