Panel “Reflecting on the Disappearance of Siblings . . . The Biographical Family Archive Project of Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo” and the Neoliberal Agenda, at the VI World Social Forum of Caracas, Venezuela, 2006

Abstract

This report discusses one of the VI World Social Forum workshops titled “Reflecting on experiencing the disappearance of siblings, and the effects of participating in the Biographical Family Archive Project of Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo,” and relates this workshop to the mandate of the World Social Forum as a whole. As part of the World Social Forum, this workshop opposed neoliberalism and stressed the importance of building a society centred on the human person. The stories of workshop participants achieve several things: they allow connections to be made between a variety of repressive projects and the neoliberal agenda; they document hitherto unheard stories, to retrace the horrifying events and the historical trauma of communities; they rewrite conventional historiography; and they contribute to efforts to bring perpetrators to justice. These stories also bring to light Latin America’s emergence into global capitalism as a story of violence and destruction that originated in the economic interests of the United States.