The president of Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini, arrives at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires on May 4, 2017 to give a press conference.
(Credit: JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN Spanish) -
The head of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini, died this Sunday at the age of 93.
The Vice President of the Argentine Republic, Cristina Kirchner, published a message on her social networks saying goodbye to the Human Rights activist: "Dearest Hebe, Mother of Plaza de Mayo, world symbol of the fight for Human Rights, pride of Argentina.
God called you on the day of National Sovereignty... it should not be a coincidence.
Simply thank you and see you always."
For his part, the President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández, dismissed Hebe de Bonafini with "deep pain and respect" through a press release and declared three days of national mourning to pay tribute to her memory.
Chicha Mariani, founder of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, dies without having found her granddaughter
Fernández stressed that the Argentine government and people recognize Bonafini as an international symbol of the fight for Human Rights, the search for truth and justice for the 30,000 disappeared during the last military dictatorship.
She added that, as the founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, she shed light in the dark night of the dictatorship and "paved the way for the recovery of democracy forty years ago."
Bonafini had been discharged on October 13, after having been hospitalized for three days at the Italian Hospital in the city of La Plata for medical check-ups.
The week prior to that hospitalization, the leader had led the march that she carries out every Thursday, and on that occasion they had invited high school students to present about the school takeovers in the city of Buenos Aires.
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Reviewing her biography, Hebe Bonafini said that her parents and grandmother had taught her "the value of work" while her two missing children taught her "what politics is."
Bonafini was born in a working-class neighborhood in the town of Ensenada and would have turned 94 on December 4.
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo