Victoria Montenegro

Victoria Montenegro
Legislator of the City of Buenos Aires
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 December 2017
Personal details
Born	Hilda Victoria Montenegro (1976-01-31) 31 January 1976 (age 48) Hurlingham, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
Political party	Kolina (2011–present)
Other political affiliations	Front for Victory (2011–2017) Unidad Porteña (2017–2019) Frente de Todos (2019–present)

Hilda Victoria Montenegro (born 31 January 1976) is an Argentine politician who has been a member of the Buenos Aires City Legislature since 2017 for the Kolina party.

Montenegro is the daughter of two "desaparecidos", alleged political dissidents of the military dictatorship who ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Raised under a false name by a family linked to the dictatorship, Montenegro discovered her true identity in 2000 with the help of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, becoming the 66th grandchild to have their identity restored.

Early life

Hilda Victoria Montenegro was born on 31 January 1976 in Hurlingam, Buenos Aires Province, daughter of Roque Orlando Montenegro and Hilda Ramona Argentina Torres. ^[1] Her parents were originally from Salta, they were both active in the ERP-PRT. ^[2] On 13 February 1976, when Victoria was only 13 days old, she and her parents were kidnapped from their home by the military; her parents were "disappeared", and she was illegally appropriated and given to an army colonel, Herman Antonio Tetzlaff. ^[3]

She was raised by Tetzlaff and his wife, María del Carmen Eduartes, as their own daughter, under the name of "María Sol Tetzlaff". ^[4] Growing up, she wanted to join the Army, ^[3] but ultimately didn't due to recurrent anxiety attacks. ^[5]

Restoration of her identity

In 1993, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo accused Tetzlaff of illegal appropriation of minors in the framework of the 1976–83 dictatorship, and Montenegro – then still known as María Sol, aged 16 – was forced to take a blood test, which was then run through the Grandmothers' genetic data bank. In 2000, the results showed she was not Tetzlaff and Eduartes' biological daughter, and her real parents were Roque Montenegro and Hilda Torres; she was the 66th grandchild whose identity was restored by the Grandmothers. ^[6] She initially refused to co-operate in the trial against Tetzlaff – which eventually led to his imprisonment – and kept going by María Sol. ^[5] She met her biological parents' family for the first time in 2001. ^[1]

Roque Montenegro's body was found in a mass grave in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, in 2012. Evidence suggests he was a victim of a death flight. ^[7] Her mother remains missing. ^[1]

Political career

Montenegro's involvement in politics began in 2008, when she got a job at the Ministry of Social Development. In 2011 she joined Kolina, a kirchnerist political party founded by Alicia Kirchner. ^[5] She became the party's Human Rights secretary, and in 2013, she was the fifth candidate in the Front for Victory (FPV) list for the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in the City of Buenos Aires. ^[8] From 2014 to 2015 she was head of the National Coordination Unit for Prevention, Assistance and the Eradication of Violence against Women of the National Women's Council (Spanish : Consejo Nacional de las Mujeres, CNM). ^{[9] [10]}

She was a candidate to the Chamber of Deputies again in 2015, this time as the fourth candidate in the FPV list. ^[11] However, once again the list didn't receive enough votes for her to be elected.

Ahead of the 2017 legislative election in Buenos Aires, Montenegro was selected to be the third candidate in the Unidad Porteña list for the Buenos Aires City Legislature; ^[12] the list won the simultaneous and mandatory primaries on 13 August and, on the general election, received 21.26% of the vote – enough for Montenegro to be elected. ^[13] She was sworn in on 5 December 2017. ^[14]

As of 2020, she was the national vice president of Kolina. ^{[15] [16] [17]} In the 2021 elections, Montenegro was re-elected to the City Legislature on the Frente de Todos list, as the second candidate behind Alejandro Amor. ^[18]

Personal life

Montenegro and her husband, Gustavo, have three sons: Gonzalo, Sebastián and Santiago. ^[5]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Victoria Montenegro

Election	Office	List		#	District	Votes			Result	Ref.
						Total	%	P.
2013	National Deputy		Front for Victory	5	City of Buenos Aires	395,664	21.62%	3rd [lower-alpha 1]	Not elected	[19]
2015			Front for Victory	4	City of Buenos Aires	437,380	22.37%	2nd [lower-alpha 1]	Not elected	[20]
2017	City Legislator		Unidad Porteña	3	City of Buenos Aires	408,462	21.26%	2nd [lower-alpha 1]	Elected	[21]
2021			Frente de Todos	2	City of Buenos Aires	484,950	25.46%	2nd [lower-alpha 1]	Elected	[22]

1. Presented on an electoral list. The data shown represents the share of the vote the entire party/alliance received in that constituency.

See also

• List of kidnappings

References

1. "MONTENEGRO, Hilda Victoria". Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 December 2020.
2. "Hija de desaparecidos denunció maniobras del Fiscal de Casación". Planeta IUS (in Spanish). 24 April 2011. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
3. "De María Sol a Victoria, la transición a la verdad de Victoria Montenegro". Perfil (in Spanish). 24 March 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
4. Barrionuevo, Alexei (8 October 2011). "Daughter of 'Dirty War,' Raised by Man Who Killed Her Parents". The New York Times . Retrieved 16 November 2023.
5. Dillon, Marta (11 August 2013). "La resistencia de Victoria". Página/12 (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 December 2020.
6. Spinetta, Franco (7 August 2014). "Victoria Montenegro: "Vamos a seguir buscando hasta que aparezca el último chico"". Diario Z (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 December 2020.
7. "Argentina identifies Dirty War victim from 1976". BBC . 24 May 2012. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
8. "Quedaron definidas las listas de candidatos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires". Télam (in Spanish). 22 June 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
9. "Decreto 2589/2014". Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina (in Spanish). 30 December 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
10. "Decreto2856/2015". Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina (in Spanish). 9 December 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
11. "Kicillof, Garré y Larroque, en las listas K por la ciudad de Buenos Aires". La Voz (in Spanish). 20 June 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
12. "Lista de Unidad Porteña: Daniel Filmus y candidatos a diputados por Buenos Aires". Clarín (in Spanish). 19 October 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
13. "Elecciones legislativas porteñas – Cómo queda la Legislatura". Palermo Mío (in Spanish). 23 October 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
14. "La satisfacción de Victoria Montenegro". Página/12 (in Spanish). 5 December 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
15. González, Juan Luis (1 June 2020). "Victoria Montenegro, legisladora K: "Si hacés una radiografía, Larreta es igual a Macri"". Noticias (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 December 2020.
16. Cargnelutti, Lisa (5 September 2020). "Victoria Montenegro: "La salud y la educación no son un gasto, son una inversión"". Télam (in Spanish). Retrieved 20 December 2020.
17. "Dispararon al frente de una unidad básica de Kolina en Villa Lugano". Perfil (in Spanish). 13 September 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
18. "Boletas en CABA: cuáles son los candidatos y listas que compiten en las PASO de las Elecciones 2021". La Nación (in Spanish). 12 September 2021. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
19. "Elecciones 2013". argentina.gob.ar (in Spanish). Dirección Nacional Electoral. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
20. "Elecciones 2015". argentina.gob.ar (in Spanish). Dirección Nacional Electoral. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
21. "Elecciones 2017" (PDF). tsjbaires.gov.ar (in Spanish). Tribunal Superior de Justicia de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
22. "Elecciones 2021" (PDF). eleccionesciudad.gob.ar (in Spanish). Tribunal Superior de Justicia de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Retrieved 4 February 2023.