“The woman who founded the Mothers, Azucena Villaflor de Vincenti, was imprisoned and disappeared on December 9, 1977, illustrating the consequences of the more public stance taken at the time by the Mothers...”—Michelle Bonner, Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria, on the danger of public protest during “El Proceso”.5

1978 World Cup: Euphoria amid tragedy

Daniel Passarella lifts the World Cup in 1978AP images

The assassination of Cup organizer General Omar Actis (most likely by Marxist guerrillas) provided an immediate obstancle to the efforts of the ruling junta. Undaunted, the junta poured 10 percent of the national budget (aprox. 700 million dollars) for the requirements set forth by soccer's world governing body: FIFA. The cost, according to Cup organizers, would be recouped by 50,000 tourists-only 10,000 arrived. Coca-Cola, a sponsor, worked with the Junta’s organizing committee (Ente Autárquico Mundial ’78) to produce a propaganda offensive aimed at opponents and human rights civil groups 6; one of the most popular slogans, “25 million Argentineans will play in the World Cup,” became nationally appropriated as “25 million Argentineans will pay for the World Cup” by critics of the regime. For the most part, however, Argentineans supported this rare chance to host the most popular sporting event in the world and demonstrate a level of soccer they understood to be among the finest. Even the Montoneros, the most popular guerrilla opposition group, halted attacks during the Cup. Despite the success of the Cup, and the host nation winning for the very first time, the brutality of the military regime continued to hang a dark cloud over the country.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

Mothers of the disappeared demand answers at the Plaza de MayoTaringa.net

In 1977, mothers of the disappeared began asking for answers through civil disobedience-marching in front of the Presidential Palace at Plaza de Mayo. Government officials, sensing an unneeded public relations problem one year from the World Cup, began a series of crack-down aimed at suppressing this protest. The mothers continued to march, finding novel methods of eluding arrest. In 1979, tired of not receiving answers as to the whereabouts of their children, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (as they were now known across the country) increased their visibility in anticipation of visits by international human rights observers by marching every Thursday.7 Today, they continue to march for thirty minutes, every Thursday, still seeking government recognition of the 30,000 who disappeared.


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5Michelle D. Bonner, Sustaining Human Rights: Women and Argentine Human Rights Organizations (University Park: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), 79.

6Mason, 71.

7Nora Amalia Femenia, “Argentina's Mothers of Plaza de Mayo: the Mourning Process from Junta to Democracy.” trans. Carlos Ariel Gil, Femenist Studies 13, no.1 (1987): 14.