The human rights defense organization “Grandmothers of May Square” announced yesterday Friday in Argentina that the grandchild number 138;the son of a city rebel couple who was kidnapped in 1976 and whose fate has been unknown since.

The boy – a lawyer today – was born inside a center for the extermination of political prisoners. It was stolen during the days of the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983), and since then its fate has been unknown.

“It is the son of Marta Enriqueta Portal and Juan Carlos Visamayor, was born in December 1976. This brings to 138 the number of cases solved during these 47 years of tireless search for truth and identity,” said the president of the May Square Grandmothers, Estela de Carloto, during a press conference.

The brother of “grandson 138” lives in Spain and is also a lawyer.

The National Commission for the Right to Identity (CoNaDi) has been working since 1999 to locate the child of Portal and Visamayor.

The man – who has not been named – was eventually able to be identified, thanks to tests DNA.

The shocking story

“On December 10, 1976, the couple was kidnapped inside their home in the city of Buenos Aires during an operation conducted by men in plainclothes. She was 8.5 months pregnant,” he explained.

Marta Enriqueta Portal and Juan Carlos Visamayor were members of the guerrilla city of Montoneros (Peronist left). After being abducted, the couple was seen on secret torture and extermination center of the navy (ESMA), where over 5,000 political prisoners were taken during the junta.

Only about a hundred of them got out of there alive, human rights defense organizations emphasize.

“Probably this is where the birth of the grandson number 138. Until now, it has been recorded that more than 30 births took place in the secret center”, Carloto emphasized in the premises of the former ESMA, which is now a place of historical memory.

The finding of the 138th grandchild is the first to be revealed since September 1, 2023, when it was announced that four cases of families searching for children born while the mother was incarcerated had been resolved.

She is also the first such case to be solved during the presidency of Javier Millais. The current head of state, who has been accused by his critics of revisionism and denial of the crimes of the military regime, opposes the historic condemnation of the dictatorship in Argentina. The far-right, ultra-liberal president, as well as his vice-president Victoria Villarreal, who have repeatedly sided with the military, dispute the number of people (30,000) estimated to have disappeared under the military junta by human rights groups.