Carmen Cobo, a Plaza de Mayo mother passed away on 3 April in Argentina. Human rights organisations mourned the death of Carmen, who tirelessly searched for her grandchild.
Carmen Rodino Cobo was one of the first women who went out to the streets to look for her children and to fight against the civil-military dictatorship. Carmen suffered persecution long before the dictatorship and knew of torture and kidnappings.
“It is with deep sadness that we bid farewell to grandmother Carmen Rodino de Cobo, another companion who is leaving without being able to embrace her grandchildren”, said Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo) on Saturday morning. Her daughter Inés disappeared when she was pregnant on 1 September 1976. Since then, Carmen had also been looking for her grandchild.
During those years, her other daughter Noemí was also abducted on several occasions. The case of Inés was one of the first to be included in the list of the trial brought by Baltazar Garzón against Argentina.
Carmen died waiting to find her children and grandchildren.
“We are deeply in pain to have heard that we lost Carmen Cobo, one of the mothers of Plaza De Mayo, who has always inspired our struggle. Carmen Cobo never gave up on her struggle for truth and justice for her daughter Inés and for all the disappeared in Argentina for 45 years”, the Saturday Mothers said in a Twitter post.
Varlıklarıyla bize ilham olan Plaza de Mayo kurucu Anneleri’nden Carmen Cobo'yu kaybettiğimizi öğrenmenin derin acısını yaşıyoruz.
45 yıl boyunca kızı Inés ve Arjantin’de tüm kaybedilenler için hakikat ve adalet mücadelesinden vazgeçmeyen #CarmenCobo'nun mücadelesi mirasımızdır. pic.twitter.com/t0Vkp027xM— Cumartesi Anneleri (@CmrtesiAnneleri) April 3, 2021
Saturday Mothers have been gathering in Istanbul’s Galatasaray Square to find their disappeared children and family members since 1995. Saturday mothers and mothers and grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo have been in solidarity in their struggle for justice ever since.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition oarty Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Pervin Buldan also passed on her condolences for those who knew Carmen Cobo. “I have recevied the news sadly that dear Carmen Cobo died, who was one of the founders of the ‘Mothers of Plaza de Mayo’, who have been struggling to find their disappeared children in Argentina”, she said.