| Adolfo Pérez Esquivel | |
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| Born | November 26, 1931 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
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Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (born November 26, 1931) is an Argentine sculptor, architect and pacifist. He was the recipient of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize.
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Pérez Esquivel was born in Buenos Aires to a Spanish fisherman who emigrated to Argentina. His mother died when he was three, and despite his poverty, he attended the Manuel Belgrano School of Fine Arts and the National University of La Plata, where he was trained as an architect and sculptor.[1] He was appointed professor of architecture, and for 25 years, he taught in primary schools, secondary schools and at the university level. He has worked in a number of sculptural media. Pérez Esquivel began working with popularly based Latin American Christian pacifist groups during the 1960s. He relinquished his teaching post in 1974 when he was chosen as coordinator general for a network of Latin America-based communities promoting liberation of the poor through non-violent means.[2]
When systematic repression followed the March 1976 coup, which brought the dictatorship of General Jorge Videla to power, Pérez Esquivel contributed to the formation and financing of the linkages between popularly based organizations to defend human rights and support the families of the victims of the Dirty War. The NGO El Servicio de Paz y Justicia ("Service, Peace and Justice Foundation", or SERPAJ), which he founded, evolved in this context, and served as an instrument for the defense of human rights by promoting an international campaign to denounce the atrocities committed by the military regime.[3]
Pérez Esquivel was detained by the Brazilian Military Police in 1975. He was jailed in 1976 in Ecuador, along with Latin American and North American bishops. He was detained in Buenos Aires in 1977 by the Argentine Federal Police, tortured, and held without trial for 14 months; whilst incarcerated, he received—among other distinctions—the Pope John XXIII Peace Memorial. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for his efforts in the defense of human rights.[2] He remained active in support of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo,[4] of indigenous peoples of Argentina, of environmentalism, and against the Free Trade Area of the Americas.[5] He was awarded the Pacem in Terris Award in 1999.
He served as president of the Honorary Council of Service, Latin American Peace and Justice Foundation and of the International League for Human Rights and Liberation of Peoples (based in Milan), and as a member of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal. He published Caminando Junto al Pueblo ("Walking Together with the People", 1995), in which he relates his experiences with non-violence in Latin America, and was appointed Professor of Peace and Human Rights Studies at the University of Buenos Aires in 1998.[6] He campaigned during 2010 against the practice on the part of the Esquel Police Department of training children into paramilitary squads, an operation he compares to the creation of Nazi Germany's Hitler Youth.[7]
Pérez Esquivel was appointed as a goodwill ambassador of IIMSAM, the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition. The institution's goals are centered on making Spirulina a key driver to eradicate malnutrition, achieve food security, and bridge the health divide with a special priority for the developing and the least developed countries.[1]
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