The radio station of Argentine nongovernmental organization Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo was attacked Thursday, the group reported via Twitter.
The Mothers’ leader, award-winning peace activist Hebe de Bonafini, may face an investigation by authorities for “inciting collective violence” after she called for protests to coincide with the inauguration of the country’s new president, Mauricio Macri.
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Four people physically attacked one person in the Radio Madre AM 530 building and vandalized the building with eggs. The group announced that this is one of many threats, including death threats, its members have received.
Since Macri was sworn in Dec. 10, Bonafini has been extremely vocal in speaking out against the right-wing president’s package of proposed neoliberal reforms, and has especially criticized his recent gutting of the country’s progressive media law, which had sought to end private media monopolies.
"He is a despot, he has no shame. He is worse than a dictator because, unfortunately, he was voted in," Bonafini said Dec. 24 of Macri.
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She also announced the revival of the nongovernmental organization’s “Marches of Resistance” in the Plaza de Mayo until “the enemy” Macri is no longer in power. Bonafini announced in 2006 that the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo would discontinue their marches in recognition of former President Nestor Kirchner’s move to declare unconstitutional the law that protected from prosecution many dictatorship-era perpetrators of human rights abuses.
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo traditionally convened every Thursday in Buenos Aires’ main plaza for which the group is named, for the past 38 years, originally in order to denounce the thousands of disappearances during the Dirty War and after Bonafini’s 2006 declaration to stand up for other social causes.
Las Madres no se detienen. Ellas están en su lugar de lucha. pic.twitter.com/XuB3aj1rX7
— Prensa Madres (@PrensaMadres) December 31, 2015
“The Mothers are not deterred. They are in their place of struggle.”
After Thursday’s attack, the group said its usual meet would be aimed at denouncing the attack and would be followed by a march toward the nearest police station to make a public complaint.
Las Madres ingresan a la sexta a realizar la denuncia por agresiones y amenazas. pic.twitter.com/g6Pq9PujF3
— Prensa Madres (@PrensaMadres) December 31, 2015
“The mothers enter (the station) to make their complaint about aggression and threats”
Bonafini is one of the founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an organization founded in 1977 to find children stolen, kidnapped, or born to women in detention during Argentina’s dictatorship-era Dirty War. Bonafini has been widely recognized for her activism, including with UNESCO’s Prize for Peace Education in 1999 and Ecuador’s Nation Order of Merit in 2006, among others.
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