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Javier Tarazona, Director of FUNDAREDES, spent more than four years unjustly imprisoned, while Carlos Julio Rojas, a journalist and human rights defender, was held for over two years in El Helicoide. CADAL welcomes both releases in the hope that Venezuela will begin a democratic transition and that the exercise of human rights will no longer be treated as a crime.
Furthermore, CADAL reports that the call for nominations for the 2026 edition of the Graciela Fernández Meijide Award closed on 31st January. This year, the Award is aimed at individuals imprisoned for political reasons anywhere in the world whose cases do not enjoy significant international visibility. Nominations were received from Azerbaijan, North Korea, Cuba, China, Equatorial Guinea, Morocco and Venezuela. The jury, made up of Rubén Chababo, Inés Pousadela, Vicente Palermo and Eduardo Ulibarri, will review the nominations, and the winners will be announced on 26th February, on the 23rd anniversary of CADAL.
Graciela Fernández Meijide was born in Buenos Aires in 1931. She is a French teacher, a profession she pursued until 1976, when her son Pablo was disappeared. From that moment on, she began collaborating with the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, and in 1983 she became a member of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP). In 1993 she was elected National Deputy for the Federal Capital, and the following year she took part in the Constituent Assembly that reformed the National Constitution. She later served as a National Senator and chaired the Constituent Convention of the City of Buenos Aires. In 1997 she was elected National Deputy for the Province of Buenos Aires, a position she held until 1999, when she was appointed Minister of Social Development.
She has published several books, including The Intimate History of Human Rights in Argentina and They Were Human, Not Heroes: A Critique of the Political Violence of the 1970s. A biography of her life was written by Pablo Marmorato under the title Nenuca: The Story of Graciela Fernández Meijide. She was President of the Argentine Political Club.
She has received numerous distinctions, including the Order of Merit of Chile, Officer Grade (Chilean Embassy, 1999); the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, Cavaliere di Gran Croce (2001); Distinguished Citizen of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (2016); the Konex Platinum Award for her work as a social leader (2018); Honorary Doctorate, Universidad Siglo 21 (2020); and Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour from the French Embassy (2022).
