Mother of Plaza de Mayo Taty Almeida dies at 95

President of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Taty Almeida passed away on Sunday at 95. Beloved by her fellow mothers and the rest of the human rights movements, she spent more than 50 years seeking answers and justice for the disappearance of her son, Alejandro Almeida, at the hands of the far-right paramilitary group known as Triple A in 1975. Our dear Taty Almeida, president of Mothers of Plaza-Founders Line, past away June 14 at 7.20 p.m. We will promptly communicate when the wake will take place. “30,000 detained-disappeared are present, now and forever!” read a statement from the Almeida family. Almeida was one of the most prominent human rights leaders in Argentina for the past four decades. She became president of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo-Founders Line in December after the death of her predecessor, Norita Cortias, in May 2024. Born June 28, 1930, under the name Lidia Stella Mercedes Miy Uranga, everyone knew her as Taty, and she would later take on her ex-husband’s surname. She came from a conservative military family and worked as a teacher for a few years in the early 1950s before she quit to dedicate herself to raising her children, Jorge, Alejandro, and Fabiana. Taty Almeida with Herald Editor-in-Chief Estefana Pozzo (middle) and former deputy director Amy Booth (Credit: Guido Piotrkowski). Her life changed on June 17, 1975, when her son Alejandro Almeida was kidnapped at 20 by the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AAA), a far-right paramilitary group backed by public officials that persecuted and killed hundreds of people under the 1973-1976 Peronist government before the 1976 military coup. Alejandro was a militant, an activist, an active member of the Peoples Revolutionary Army (ERP, by its Spanish initials). However, she would find out about this several years later while searching among his notebooks. He also worked in the National Geographic Institute and was in his first year of medical school. In an interview with Revista Haroldo in 2021, she recalled his last words: Mom, I wont go to work tomorrow because I have a test. Wait for me; Ill be right back. But he never returned, and she began her search. At the time of his disappearance, Taty was far from being involved in politics. She tried to get help from her military contacts, people she knew because of her family ties. But no one helped her.  When the military carried out the March 24, 1976, coup, she felt relief because she thought that, now that the Peronists were gone and the people she knew had risen to power, maybe she could get her Alejandro back. Thats what I believed; thats why it took some time for me to click. In 1979 she heard about the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo and decided to find out what their work was all about. It was hard for me to reach out to the mothers because I wondered who those women were, she told Revista Haroldo. But when she entered their headquarters in downtown Buenos Aires, she was shocked. When I went in I saw pictures, and pictures, and pictures, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, Im not the only one. From that moment on, she joined the group of mothers and never left. Until the one up there says otherwise, Ill keep going, firm in my fight for memory, for truth and for justice. Looking into the notes and papers Alejandro had left behind, not only did she find out he was an activist but also a poet.  In his room, shortly after his disappearance, she found a poem he had written for his mother, in a way predicting what would eventually happen to him. If death surprises me / in such a bitter / but honest way / if it doesnt give me enough time / for one desperate and honest last scream / I will use my breath / my last breath / to say / I love you.