Carlotto Buries Hatchet at the Vatican

By Luciana Bertoia
Buenos Aires Herald
November 6, 2014

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/174055/carlotto-buries-hatchet-at-the-vatican

The years of mistrust between the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and Jorge Bergoglio — now Pope Francis — seem to be a thing of the past now.

On a visit to the Vatican alongside her recently-recovered grandson, Grandmothers leader Estela Barnes de Carlotto said that “Francis’ tenure in the Vatican has proven that reports against him for his role during the dictatorship were mistaken.”

The head of the association founded in 1977 also seemed to want to bury the hatchet: “ We rectify ourselves.”

Those words, quoted by the AFP news agency, were seen as particularly significant considering that the Catholic Church has long been accused of being an accomplice of the state terrorism carried out by the last military dictatorship.

Rosa Roisinblit, the vice-president of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, talked to the Herald yesterday and did not reference any kind of rectification of prior reports made by the human rights organization.

“We have a favourable relationship with the Church now,” Roisinblit said. “Bergoglio — now Francis — was one of leaders of the Church but we never asked him for help and he never came near us either.”

The Grandmothers vice-president, who in 2000 recovered her missing grandson added that “things have changed now” in terms of the group’s relationship with the Vatican.

“If the leaders of the Church are now requesting their parishioners to give information about our grandchildren, that’s good news,” Roisinblit added.

Roisinblit made it clear she could not provide any details of the meeting between Barnes de Carlotto and Pope Francis. And one of Barnes de Carlotto’s grandsons — who stayed in Buenos Aires — told the Herald that he had only received text messages of joy from the rest of the family.

Barnes de Carlotto and her family will be giving a press conference in Rome today to talk about their meeting with the pontiff, but sources that were part of the meeting said that the human rights leader was “grateful.” Sources from the Argentine embassy in Rome could not confirm to the Herald if Barnes de Carlotto renewed her request for the Church to open its archives from the last dictatorship.

Sources from Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo told this newspaper that Barnes de Carlotto wanted to take the opportunity to asking for more cooperation from the Church to find the 400 children snatched from their mothers during the military regime.

It would not be the first time. Barnes de Carlotto had already met with Francis in April.

Meeting

On August 5 — after a long search — Estela Barnes de Carlotto finally found her grandson, the baby delivered by her eldest daughter Laura while she was held in the clandestine detention centre known as La Cacha in La Plata before she was killed by a dictatorship death squad.

Pope Francis sent a letter to Estela to congratulate her and sources explained that he also invited her and Ignacio Guido Montoya Carlotto, Laura’s son, to travel to the Vatican to meet him.

The pope told Eduardo Valdes, the recently-appointed ambassador to the Holy See, to invite the head of Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. But it was President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner who communicated it to Estela and Ignacio Guido during one of the two meetings they both had with her since he recovered his real identity.

Barnes de Carlotto travelled to Rome with her three children: Kirchnerite lawmaker Remo Carlotto, Buenos Aires provincial Human Rights Secretary Guido “Kibo” Carlotto and Claudia Carlotto, the head of the National Commission for the Right to Identity (Conadi). Ignacio Guido was joined by his girlfriend Celeste Maduena and his cousins.

The meeting took place in a facility known as “il funghetto”, located next to the Santa Marta residence. Estela and Ignacio Guido first met with the pope while the rest of the family waited for them in another room. After 30 minutes, the three of them arrived at the room and Estela Barnes de Carlotto introduced each of her grandchildren to Bergoglio.

Then it was time for presents. The most symbolic one was a headscarf that Barnes de Carlotto gave the pope. The headscarf is the symbol of the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo’s struggle to recover their missing children. Ignacio Guido, a pianist, gave the pontiff a CD with some of his recordings.

In the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo headquarters, the invitation from the pope was celebrated weeks ago. Barnes de Carlotto welcomed the fact that the highest leader of the Catholic Church wanted to meet a recovered grandson as a sign that he promoted the recovery of the rest of the babies snatched in the clandestine detention centres. Ten days ago, the association also released a footage from Jose Maria Arancedo, the head of the Argentine Synod (CEA), urging parishioners to provide information to help the Grandmothers.

Before her trip, Barnes de Carlotto met with experts to help her draft a list of requests to the pope in order to help them obtain information that could be useful to identify the children appropriated during the dark years of the last dictatorship.

“Estela had already asked the pope for his cooperation. He agreed to help and she was visibly grateful,” a source that took part of the meeting told the Herald. Today, she will also say if Pope Francis has agreed to more steps to cooperate with the country’s quest for memory, truth and justice.

Left behind?

On August 22, the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo announced the identification of Ana Libertad Baratti de la Cuadra, the granddaughter of Alicia “Licha” Zubasnabar de de la Cuadra, one of the founders of the association. The identification also renewed the doubts over Bergoglio’s role during the last dictatorship.

In the trial for the systematic plan of child appropriation in 2012, Bergoglio filed a written statement making reference to Ana Libertad’s case. The priest admitted having met Roberto de la Cuadra.

“He told me that one of his daughters had been kidnapped but I don’t remember if he told me that his daughter was pregnant,” Bergoglio wrote. In the same statement, the priest said that he learned about the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and their struggle to recover their missing grandchildren in the 1990s.

Pope Francis was also linked to the kidnapping of two Jesuit priests, Francisco Jalics and Orlando Yorio, who were taken in 1978 to the infamous Navy Mechanics School. Last year, when Bergoglio was appointed pope, Jalics — who lives in Germany — said that Bergoglio had not been involved in their abduction