The 130th Child Missing since the Argentina Dictatorship has been Found

June 13, 2019

The Association Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo have revealed the identity of the 130th grandson last Thursday, whose parents were kidnapped and disappeared during the bloody military dictatorship that ruled in Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

Javier Matias Darroux Mijalchuk was introduced at a press conference together with an uncle—who had been looking for him for 40 years—and the president of the human rights association, Estela de Carloto.

The Grandmothers confirmed in a statement that Matias is the son of Elena Mijalchuk and Juan Manuel Darroux, both of whom disappeared on December 1977.

“His Uncle Roberto Mijalchuk received the longed-for call on an old phone line he had never cancelled. The National Commission for the Right to Identity (CONADI) told him they had found his nephew. Javier was now able to know his origin and the Grandmothers welcomed him today to this huge family,” Mrs. Carloto said during the press conference at the office of the organization in Buenos Aires.

Javier Matias Darroux Mijalchuk knew he was adopted. When he was four months old, he was found by a woman on a street close to the clandestine detention and torture center of the Naval Mechanics School (or ESMA). His mother Elena had been seen carrying her baby in that area in northeast Buenos Aires for the last time.

Elena was looking for her partner, Juan Manuel Darroux, who had been kidnapped a few days before. Her family never heard about her again. The baby, Javier, had been found by a woman who offered him for adoption to another family in Buenos Aires. He moved to the province of Cordoba in 1999, where he started looking to find the truth about his past.

Javier’s uncle, Roberto, brother of Elena, took part in the press conference together with his nephew and said, “After 40 years, he never gave up and he never lost hope about finding us alive. He always maintained the same phone line, waiting for the call.” His grandson added “Thanks uncle for never giving up on looking for me.”

At the end of the press conference, Javier told RT,”This is very emotional for me. I knew a couple years ago that my family existed and I had met with my uncle but there was no progress regarding the legal investigation about what concrete facts surrounded the disappearance of my parents,” said Javier, who may not be the only child of the disappeared couple.

“I have a brother and this is why we needed to bring my story and my parents story to light’. Maybe someone who is watching us now, listening to us, can help me solve this puzzle.”

Javier confirmed that his mother was two months pregnant when she was kidnapped. For this reason they think a second child may be disappeared too, though they did not know if he was born in detention. “I don’t know many things,” the identified grandson admitted, adding that “this is why the struggle is for truth. My memory has been strengthened by the Grandmothers, and by my uncle. There are many like me living this situation but not all of them are encouraged to find about their real identity.”

According to him, his search was encouraged by his partner Vanina and two friends named Juan Pablo and Horacio. Nevertheless, he recalled the strong campaigns launched by the Grandmothers in 2006, calling on those who had “doubts about their identity” to come to the organization. This was one of the reasons why Javier decided to leave his DNA sample at the National Bank of Genetic Data, which confirmed his relationship with his family.

Source: RT, Translation, Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau