The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
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The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been circling one of the main squares of the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires since 1977 in weekly circumambulations to demand the investigation of the disappearance – the assassination – of their children and grandchildren by the military junta which was in power between 1976 and 1983. “As part of Operation Condor, military and security forces and right-wing death squads hunted down political dissidents and anyone believed to be associated with socialism, left-wing Peronism or the Montoneros guerrillero movement.”
On 30 April 1977 the Mothers marched around the circular square for the first time after the police threatened to expel them, were they to continue their seated protests. An officer told them “circulate, circulate”. By April 2020 (before the beginning of the Corona pandemic), the mothers had circled the square 2194 times.