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(CNN) -- It took more than 3 decades, but Victoria Montenegro hasfinally recovered the remains of her father, and in doing so, heridentity. The Argentinian mother of three, who lives in Buenos Aires, thisweek received confirmation that a body found in a Uruguayancemetery is that of her father, Roque Orlando Montenegro, whodisappeared in 1976 when she was just a few days old. It's a story about the depths of repression reached duringArgentina's so-called Dirty War from 1976 to 1983. Thousands ofpeople, mainly leftists, trade unionists, students, Marxists andtheir sympathizers, were targeted by the military regime that tookpower in March 1976 and even before then. Some were executed; manyothers simply were never heard from again. Victoria Montenegro had been seeking the truth about her fathersince she learned in the year 2000, when she was 24 years old, thatthe military couple who raised her were not her biological parents."I was appropriated," Montenegro says, using the term given tochildren whose parents were killed or disappeared during the DirtyWar and were given to other couples. The organization known as Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (May SquareGrandmothers), helped her find the truth about her identity. Theorganization helps people, who were taken away from theirpolitically persecuted parents as children, reconnect with theirpast. Guillermo Wulff, a spokesman with Abuelas, says that forMontenegro, learning the truth wasn't easy. "It took a long timefor her to accept it; but when she did, she was then ready for thenext step, which was finding out how her parents died," Wulff said. The Argentinian Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF by its Spanishacronym) announced this week that forensic and DNA tests prove thathuman remains found in a Uruguayan cemetery are those of RoqueOrlando Montenegro, known as "Toti," who went missing in February1976 when he was 20 years old. Luis Fondevrider, president of EAAF, said that identifying theremains of Montenegro was a process that started 10 years ago inColonia, Uruguay, across the Rio de La Plata from Buenos Aires. "In 2002 we exhumed eight unidentified bodies from the cemetery inColonia. At that time, we had no hypothesis as to how the bodiesended up there," said Fondevrider. EAAF took DNA and forensic samples from the bodies. In 2007, theindependent organization started taking blood and DNA samples frompeople in Argentina with missing relatives. Victoria Montenegro wasone of 8,500 people who left samples over the following four years.Finally, a match was made this year. But how did the body of a man kidnapped in Buenos Aires end up in adifferent country? Fondevrider believes Montenegro was killedduring the so-called "death flights," a series of military flightsin which political prisoners were thrown alive into the sea.Montenegro's body probably washed ashore on the Uruguayan coast. Anameless tombstone was placed over his grave in Colonia. For Victoria Montenegro, seeking the truth about her origins hasbeen a slow and painful process, but she says knowing what trulyhappened has given her some closure. "Recovering my true identitywas paramount," Montenegro said. "Having a true identity is a humanright. Recovering the remains of my father has been important notonly to understand how he died, but also to bring some justice toArgentina and the victims of the regime." Montenegro says her rendezvous with her past is only halfway done.Her adoptive parents, whom she calls "my appropriators," told herboth of her biological parents had died in a Buenos Aires shootoutin February 1976. She has no knowledge or clues about what happenedto her mother. Her adoptive parents are deceased. She called it "a miracle" that the Godmothers organization foundher and, "with a drop of my blood, was able to identify the remainsof my father, buried in Uruguay since 1976." Now with a son who, at 20, is as old as her father was when hedisappeared, Montenegro said she hopes the episode shines a littlemore light on a dark past. "As painful as it may be, we need to find the truth about ourhistory," she said. "By exhuming and identifying our loved onesafter all these years, we give them back their dignity.". I am an expert from drying-equipments.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Precision Grinding Machine , Fluid Bed Dryer, Air Circulating Oven,and more.
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