Rosa Roisinblit, a figure in the fight against the Argentine dictatorship, has died.

"The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo bid farewell with sadness to their dear companion Rosa Tarlovsky de Roisinblit, vice-president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo until 2021, when, due to her advanced age, she assumed the honorary presidency of the institution," the human rights organization announced on its website.

Born in 1919 in Moises Ville, a Jewish immigrant village in east-central Argentina, Rosa Roisinblit was working as an obstetrician when, on October 6, 1978, her daughter Patricia Roisinblit and son-in-law José Pérez Rojo, both activists in the Montoneros armed organization fighting against the military junta, were kidnapped.

Patricia's 15-month-old daughter, Mariana, was returned to her family and raised by Rosa.

But Patricia, then eight months pregnant, was transferred to the clandestine detention and torture center at the Naval Mechanics School in Buenos Aires, where, a few days after giving birth, in a basement, the baby was taken from her.

Like around 30,000 others extrajudicially kidnapped during the military dictatorship (1976-1983), Patricia Roisinblit and José Pérez Rojo were murdered and their bodies were never recovered.

More than 20 years later, in 2000, thanks to the work of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, of which she was a co-founder, Rosa was able to find her grandson, Guillermo Roisinblit, one of the 140 children rescued by the organization.

That same year, three soldiers responsible for her grandson's kidnapping were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 12 to 25 years. Rosa and her two grandchildren, Mariana and Guillermo, attended the trial.

According to the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, around 500 babies were stolen by the dictatorship from their parents, most of whom were opponents of the regime, and, in many cases, from mothers who gave birth in clandestine centers and who disappeared, were murdered, or thrown alive, but drugged, into the sea.

According to the association, there are still around 300 children to be found.

The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo followed in the footsteps of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who protested in 1981 to find their children who had been kidnapped.

On March 24, the 49th anniversary of the 1976 military coup, President Javier Milei announced the declassification of intelligence files related to the dictatorship.

However, on August 14, Milei eliminated the unit integrated into the National Commission for the Right to Identity (Conadi) designed to investigate the appropriation of children during the dictatorship for allegedly undermining the separation of powers.

Milei's government disputes the number of people who disappeared during the military regime, which is 30,000, an estimate that is consensual among human rights organizations, and only admits to 8,751.