Campo de Mayo - Concentration Camp / Torture Center
Among the speakers were Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize winner, who spoke eloquently about carrying on this work for justice, also took the occasion to excoriate the School of the Americas and the role the United States played in the state terrorism before, during and after the dictatorship.
Also present and speaking were Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Campo de Mayo represents one of the most insidiously evil practices of the military regime. Many, many young women who were pregnant when abducted were brought here. They were held and tortured always long enough to give birth. At first these births occurred in tents set up for the prisoners out in the field. At some point the base hospital became the "maternity hospital" where so many detained women gave birth. Once born, their babies were taken from them and were "adopted out" to military or police families, or others in their circle. The Abuelas (Grandmothers) organization works full time trying to recuperate these missing children, who are now in their 20's and 30's.
Because people from the neighboring community joined in this march to Campo de Mayo, one of the Abuelas (grandmothers) sent out a plea from the stage, asking people who live near this concentration camp to remember any families from that era who had a new baby but didn't appear to be pregnant at the time, and to let the Abuelas know so that they can investigate. It is this kind of "technology" that has been successful in identifying 82 "lost" children to date.
