Rosa Graciela Castagnola de Fernández Meijide (born 27 February 1931), better known as Graciela Fernández Meijide is an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

teacher, human rights activist and politician. She came to prominence by investigating the

forced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...

s of thousands of people during the

Dirty War The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...

. She later served as a deputy, senator, and government minister for the

FrePaSo The Front for a Country in Solidarity ( or ) was a center-left political coalition in Argentina. It was formed in 1994 out of the Broad Front (''Frente Grande''), which had been founded mainly by progressive members of the Peronist Justicialist ...

party.

Biography

Graciela Castagnola was born in

Avellaneda Avellaneda (, ) is a port city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the seat of the Avellaneda Partido, whose population was 342,677 as per the . Avellaneda is located within the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area, and is connected ...

just south of

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, where she met her husband, Enrique Fernández Meijide, at a young age. They had a daughter and two sons, and she worked as a

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teacher. In 1976, her 16-year-old son, Pablo, was taken by the authorities in a night-time raid on the family apartment, along with his girlfriend, María Zimmermann, in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity (the girl's former boyfriend was a student activist also named Pablo). They were not seen again by their families. Fernández Meijide campaigned for the rights of the families of the

disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organi ...

during the

of the 1970s. She lived in exile in

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for a period and joined the

Permanent Assembly for Human Rights The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (in Spanish, La Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos (APDH)) is an Argentine non-governmental human rights organization; founded in 1975. According to its official website the organization is the p ...

. At the return of democracy in 1983, she was appointed to head the depositions department of the

National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Spanish: ', CONADEP) was an Argentine organization created by President Raúl Alfonsín on 15 December 1983, shortly after his inauguration, to investigate the fate of the ''desaparecidos'' (vi ...

(CONADEP).

Political career

Although Fernández Meijide was approached by several parties after her high-profile work, it was not until the creation of the centre-left Broad Front that she started a political career, having seen the passing into law of the controversial 'Pardon Laws' (the ''

Ley de Obediencia Debida The Law of Due Obedience ( es, Ley de obediencia debida) was a law passed by the National Congress of Argentina after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (which started with a coup d'état in 1976 and e ...

'' and the ''

Ley de Punto Final The Full stop law, ''Ley de Punto Final'', was passed by the National Congress of Argentina in 1986, three years after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (1976 to 1983) and restoration of democracy. F ...

'') that effectively ended further prosecution for those responsible for human rights abuses during the

National Reorganization Process The National Reorganization Process (Spanish: ''Proceso de Reorganización Nacional'', often simply ''el Proceso'', "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, in which it was supported by the United Sta ...

dictatorship (1976–83). She stood as a candidate for the

Argentine Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies ( es, Cámara de Diputados de la Nación), officially the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Argentine Nation, is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress ( es, Congreso de la Nación). It is made up of 257 ...

in 1991 on the center-left Broad Front ticket, albeit without success. Fernández Meijide was first elected to

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

in 1993 as a Deputy for the

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on the newly formed FrePaSo (

Front for a Country in Solidarity The Front for a Country in Solidarity ( or ) was a center-left political coalition in Argentina. It was formed in 1994 out of the Broad Front (''Frente Grande''), which had been founded mainly by progressive members of the Peronist Justicialist ...

) ticket. She was elected to the

Argentine Senate The Honorable Senate of the Argentine Nation ( es, Honorable Senado de la Nación Argentina) is the upper house of the National Congress of Argentina. Overview The National Senate was established by the Argentine Confederation on July 29, 185 ...

in 1995 for the city. During this time the newly formed FrePaSo's popularity and her own grew. In 1997, she resigned her seat in the Senate and was elected a deputy once again – now for Buenos Aires Province – in a resounding victory over

Justicialist The Justicialist Party ( es, Partido Justicialista, ; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism. Current president Alberto Fernández belongs to the Justicialist Party (and has, since 2021, served ...

Chiche Duhalde, greatly increasing her profile. FrePaSo joined with the

Radical Civic Union The Radical Civic Union ( es, Unión Cívica Radical, UCR) is a centrist and social-liberal political party in Argentina. It has been ideologically heterogeneous, ranging from social liberalism to social democracy. The UCR is a member of the So ...

(UCR) and several provincial parties to create the '' Alianza'' in opposition to

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Carlos Menem Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. H ...

, and she led the Alianza

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to a majority in the Lower House in the 1997 mid-term elections. Ahead of the

1999 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1999. * 1999 electoral calendar Africa * 1999 Algerian presidential election * 1999 Botswana general election * 1999 Beninese parliamentary election * 1999 Central African Republic presidential elect ...

, Fernández Meijide ran in the Alianza presidential primary against UCR Senator

Fernando de la Rúa Fernando de la Rúa (15 September 19379 July 2019) was an Argentine politician and a member of the Radical Civic Union (UCR) political party who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1999 to 21 December 2001. De la Rúa was born in ...

, to whom she lost despite having been the front-runner in many polls. She declined to be de la Rúa's running mate and instead announced her candidacy for Governor of

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

; she lost to

Justicialist Party The Justicialist Party ( es, Partido Justicialista, ; abbr. PJ) is a major political party in Argentina, and the largest branch within Peronism. Current president Alberto Fernández belongs to the Justicialist Party (and has, since 2021, served ...

nominee Carlos Ruckauf by 7 points, however. De la Rúa, on the other hand, was elected President, and he appointed Fernández Meijide to his cabinet as Minister of Social Development and Environment. She was unable to put many of her social plans into action, however, due to lack of funds, and her popularity waned as the public's impatience grew. In a 2001 cabinet reshuffle brought on by economic and social crisis, the president made her chief of cabinet; she however resigned after a few days in protest at the government's economic policies. De la Rúa's government and the ''Alianza'' subsequently collapsed in 2001, after which both the UCR and FrePaSo backed the congressionally-appointed presidency of

Eduardo Duhalde Eduardo Alberto Duhalde (; born 5 October 1941) is an Argentine Peronist politician who served as the interim President of Argentina from January 2002 to May 2003. He also served as Vice President and Governor of Buenos Aires in the 1990s. Bor ...

to remedy the country's economic crisis. Fernández Meijide afterward retired from active politics. Her ''Intimate History of Human Rights in Argentina'' was published in 2009.

References

Graciela Fernez Meijide: una mujer con temple de acero
profile and interview, PDF format

''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', 1998-11-30 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez Meijide, Graciela 1931 births Living people People from Avellaneda Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine activists Argentine women activists Argentine exiles Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Buenos Aires Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Buenos Aires Province Front for a Country in Solidarity politicians Members of the Argentine Senate for Buenos Aires Province People of the Dirty War Women members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies Broad Front (Argentina) politicians Women government ministers of Argentina Women members of the Argentine Senate Ministers of social welfare of Argentina

Biography

Political career

See also

References