Name Angela Auad | ||
Primera Baldosa - Memoria Palermo
Ángela Auad (born February 1945 in Jujuy, Argentina; "disappeared" December 17 or 18, 1977) was an Argentine social activist. A member of the Marxist–Leninist Communist Party (Partido Comunista Marxista Leninista), she worked with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Madres de Plaza de Mayo) to locate those who "disappeared" during the Dirty War. Because of her activism, she was kidnapped, tortured and murdered.
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Political activism
Auad was first arrested when she was a college student in Tucumán; she was released in mid-1975. In 1976, her husband Roberto Genoves was imprisoned in Chaco Province. Because of this, Auad came into contact with the Relatives of Those Disappeared and Detained for Political Reasons (Familiares de Desaparecidos y Detenidos por Razones Políticas) and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who were seeking to find their children.
Disappearance
She was arrested in an action against the Mothers of the Plaze de Mayo, who had been infiltrated by Alfredo Astiz, a Navy captain and intelligence officer. She and three founders of the Mothers, as well as two French nuns, were taken to the secret detention center set up at Navy Petty-Officers School of Mechanics (Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada, ESMA), where prisoners were extensively tortured during interrogations to extract information about other activists. Those who never appeared again are believed to have been killed by military forces.
In 1978 unidentified bodies began to be washed up on beaches south of Buenos Aires. Some were buried in mass graves at General Lavalle Cemetery about 400 kilometers south of the capital. It was later confirmed that the military threw prisoners from planes and helicopters to kill them after torture.
In July 2005, a mass grave with remains of several women was exhumed. Forensic DNA testing established the identities of Auad and other women kidnapped with her, including Duquet and Villaflor.
Auad was buried in the garden of Santa Cruz Church alongside Léonie Duquet, Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, and María Ponce de Bianca.