According to newspaper Página 12, Madariaga was born on February 7, 1951 in Paraná, province of Entre Ríos, he was a member of the Peronist Youth and studied Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires, from where he was expelled due to regime intervention.
On January 17, 1977, his partner, Silvia Quintela, was kidnapped when she was pregnant and she is one of the 30,000 detained-disappeared during that period.
Madariaga had to go into exile in Uruguay and Brazil, the United Nations Refugee Agency granted him asylum in Sweden and then he traveled to Mexico.
Through the testimony of the survivor of the torture camps, Juan Carlos Scarpati learned that Quintela had a child in Campo de Mayo.
His mother (Sara Elena de Madariaga) and his mother-in-law (Ernestina Dallasta) began the search for the little boy, which he joined when he was able to return to this country after the end of the dictatorship.
In 2010, together with Abuelas, he met his son Francisco, who died 10 years later from complications caused by diabetes.
“I lived 32 and a half years with a hole in my soul. It’s a hard thing to explain having a proper child. He is missing alive. As soon as I saw him, I noticed the physical resemblance. The hug we gave healed my soul,” he said during a trial for crimes against humanity committed in Campo de Mayo.
“In exile I asked myself many times why he was alive. When I returned to Argentina and started working with Abuelas I realized that I was working not only to find my son, but also those of all my missing colleagues. “That is the greatest oxygen and honor I have,” he stated on another occasion.
The association highlighted its work in the creation of its Diffusion and Press area and initiatives such as Theater and Music for Identity, as well as massive advertising campaigns to find grandchildren, the editing of publications, books and videos.
He was the first man to join the Grandmothers Board of Directors. We want to evoke it with a peaceful soul after so much life and struggle. We hug his family, friends and colleagues. Until victory always, dear Abel!, concludes the organization’s statement.
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