Adolfo Pérez Esquivel
Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Pérez Esquivel) (b. 1931), from Argentina, was the recipient of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize. He is noted for leading protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas and for alleging that the Argentinan police are forming children into paramilitary squads, an operation he compares to the creation of World War II's Hitler Youth.
Pérez Esquivel was born in Buenos Aires and attended the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Universidad Nacional de La Plata. For 25 years, he taught in primary schools secondary schools and at the university level. He has worked in a number of sculptural media.
In the 1960s, Perez Esquivel began working with popularly based Latin American Christian pacifist groups. In 1974 he was chosen as coordinator general for a network of Latin America base communities promoting liberation of the poor through non-violent means.
When systematic repression followed the Argentine military coup of 1976, he contributed to the formation and financing of the linkages between popularly based organizations to defend human right and support the victims' families. El Servicio de Paz y Justicia ("Service, Peace and Justice Foundation"), 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.
In 1975, Perez Esquivel was detained by the [[Brazil]ian military police; he was jailed in 1976 in Ecuador, along with Latin American and North American bishops; and in 1977 in Buenos Aires he was arrested by the Policía Federal, tortured, and held without trial for 14 months. While in he received - among other distinctions - the Pope John XXIII Peace Memorial. In 1980 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for for his efforts in defense of human rights.
As of 2003, he is 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, Italy, and a member of the Permanent Popular Tribunal. Besides this work, he published Caminando Junto al Pueblo ("Walking Together with the People", 1995), where he relates his experiencies with non-violence in Latin America.
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