Graciela Fernández Meijide
| Graciela Fernández Meijide | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Social Development and the Environment | |
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In office December 10, 1999 – March 12, 2001 |
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| President | Fernando de la Rúa |
| Preceded by | Alberto Mazza |
| Succeeded by | Marcos Makón |
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National Deputy for Buenos Aires Province |
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In office December 10, 1997 – December 10, 1999 |
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National Senator for the City of Buenos Aires |
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In office December 10, 1995 – December 10, 1997 |
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National Deputy for the City of Buenos Aires |
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In office December 10, 1993 – December 10, 1995 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
February 27, 1931 Avellaneda, Buenos Aires Province |
| Political party |
Broad Front Front for a Country in Solidarity Alliance |
| Spouse(s) | Enrique Fernández Meijide |
| Profession | Foreign language teacher and human rights activist |
Rosa Graciela Castagnola de Fernández Meijide known as Graciela Fernández Meijide (born 27 February 1931) is an Argentine teacher, human rights activist and politician. She came to prominence by investigating the forced disappearances of thousands of people during the Dirty War. She later served as a deputy, senator, and government minister for the FrePaSo party.
Graciela Castagnola was born in Avellaneda, just south of Buenos Aires, where she met her husband, Enrique Fernández Meijide, at a young age. They had a daughter and two sons, and she worked as a French language 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 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 during the Dirty War of the 1970s. She lived in exile in Montreal for a period and joined the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights. At the return of democracy in 1983, she was appointed to head the depositions department of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP).
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 and the Ley de Punto Final) that effectively ended further prosecution for those responsible for human rights abuses during the National Reorganization Process dictatorship (1976–83). She stood as a candidate for the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in 1991 on the center-left Broad Front ticket, albeit without success.
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