Martina Jaureguy Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona said he has cut off all government funding to Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo —the two leading organizations devoted to identifying those disappeared and kidnapped during the dictatorship.
“We’ve cut off all Justice Ministry funding for Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo,” Cúneo Libarona said Friday on X in response to a user who asked him to end the funding these organizations receive.
He further accused them of carrying out a ‘con’ in the name of human rights, alleging the government has shut down all their “kioscos” — a word used in Argentina to refer to shady businesses.
The government, including President Javier Milei, has previously described the organization in similar terms. The Milei administration has also used rhetoric describing the dictatorship’s campaign of state-sponsored terrorr as a “war”while disputing the number of its victims.
Human rights policies under Milei
Over the past year, the government has significantly reduced funding for human rights and memory initiatives. In December, the Ministry of Justice fired 50% of the Human Rights Secretariat staff, laying off around 400 people and threatening the operation of several dictatorship memorial sites.
Human rights organizations have closely collaborated with the Argentine state for the past two decades, aiming to implement policies that memorialize and provide justice for the 30,000 victims of the dictatorship who remain missing. Despite this partnership, they are independent entities.
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According to its website, Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo is a non-profit civil association that receives funding from private and public institutions in Argentina, including the Argentine Justice Ministry. It also receives donations from companies and individuals across the globe.
At the end of 2023, Abuelas launched a donation campaign to help them continue their search for the 300 stolen grandchildren who have yet to be identified. Argentine celebrities and football clubs helped publicize the campaign throughout 2024. One-time or monthly donations can be made to the Abuelas, the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo-Founders’ Line on their respective websites.
The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo have two branches: the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo-Founders’ Line. The Association describes itself on its website as a “non-political organization,” while the Founders’ Line is an NGO.
Taty Almeida, president of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo-Founders’ Line, told the Herald they have never received “a single peso” from the Human Rights Secretariat. “For that reason, we started a campaign to ask for help to maintain the organization,” she said.
These three organizations, along with others, have operated inside the ex-ESMA compound —one of the deadliest clandestine torture centers during the dictatorship— after it became a “space for memory” in 2004. The joint administration of the compound is carried out by the national and Buenos Aires City government, along with human rights organizations.
“The fight carried out by Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo is recognized around the world, but in Argentina, it is attacked by the ‘justice’ minister, who has the ‘kiosco’ of defending the genocidal dictators,” wrote HIJOS, a human rights organization composed of the children of the dictatorship’s victims.
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