‘Long live the Bolivian people! Rather than live as slaves, we would die!’ President Arce said. Bolivia is celebrating its 200th anniversary of independence on Wednesday with a series of ceremonial events that began at 8 a.m. in Plaza 25 de Mayo in the city of Sucre. President Luis Arce led the ceremony, accompanied by national authorities, international delegations and special guests.

“Today we mark 200 years of history since that August of 1825, when the united provinces of Upper Peru freely decided in Chuquisaca to form an independent republic. After more than 15 years of struggle against Spanish colonial rule and hundreds of years of Indigenous resistance, Bolivia was born as a full affirmation of freedom in the face of oppression. Our history is filled with heroic deeds in which the Bolivian people were the true fighters and victors,” Arce said on social media.

“One of the victories the people achieved through their struggle was the founding of the Plurinational State, a new organization of the state that includes everyone. Bolivia has come a long way, and it is now up to all of us to preserve what has been accomplished.”

“Nothing and no one is above the conquests of our people. From anti-colonial struggles to the present day, we are a people of victors who know how to rise in the face of adversity! For centuries we have walked, dreaming, resisting, fighting and winning! Long live Bolivia’s Bicentennial! Long live the Bolivian people! Rather than live as slaves, we would die!” the Bolivian president emphasized.

The opening ceremony included the raising of the national flag and the singing of the national anthem in front of the House of Liberty, the starting point of the Bicentennial program.

Following the solemn ceremony, the president received official greetings from heads of state, vice presidents and foreign ministers from Latin American countries who took part in the commemorative events.

Festivities continued with a welcome for international delegations joining in the celebration of two centuries of the nation’s independent life. In the afternoon, the program included a performance by an artistic troupe from India and a musical show by renowned Bolivian charango player Alfredo Coca.

The day’s events will conclude with a special concert by the Venezuelan Youth Symphony Orchestra at Gran Mariscal Theater at 8 p.m. Celebrations will wrap up Thursday with the Grand Military Parade, the final official act marking Bolivia’s 200 years of independence.

This teacher became a symbol of resistance to the Argentine dictatorship. On Tuesday, Enriqueta Rodriguez-Maroni, former president of the Mayo Square Mothers–Founding Line, died at the age of 98 after decades of activism in Argentina’s fight for memory, truth and justice.

A tireless human rights advocate, Rodriguez dedicated her life to demanding justice for her disappeared children, Maria Beatriz and Juan Patricio Maroni. They were abducted on April 5, 1977, by a group of military personnel under the command of Gen. Carlos Suarez.

Her children and their partners were taken to the clandestine detention center known as Club Atletico, where Argentina’s dictatorship tortured and killed political prisoners. Days later, Juan Patricio’s wife was released, but he, his sister and Maria Beatriz’s husband, Carlos Rincon, were killed.

Rodriguez-Maroni became a symbol of resistance to the dictatorship when, during a demonstration in front of the Pink House presidential palace, she publicly denounced the regime’s crimes to the world.

“They came into our homes, raided them, and stole whatever they wanted. They destroyed our houses and robbed us of everything we had. And on top of that, they stole our children. We never heard from them again. The Army did it. The Army!” she said forcefully to foreign journalists.

“Enriqueta Rodriguez de Maroni, former president of the Founding Line of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, passed away at the age of 98. Enriqueta was a teacher and rose to prominence when she was interviewed on Dutch television during one of the marches during the 1978 World Cup.”

Rodriguez-Maroni was interviewed by Dutch television during the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, while the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were marching in defiance of the dictatorship. Her voice, firm and full of pain, echoed across the globe as a testament to the atrocities suffered by the Argentine people.

“In Argentina, they tried to impose a plan of terror alongside an economic plan of growing marginalization, punishing those who thought differently. The military forces saw themselves as ‘messiahs’ who would save the nation,” she wrote in a public letter.

“There was a sinister plan carried out by individuals who turned kidnapping, detention, torture, and disappearance into a ‘way of life’ for several years. In the darkest moments of our history, a generation committed itself to its time and its people,” she added, striving to keep alive the memory of her children and the thousands of others who were disappeared.

“We have the right to know what happened to our loved ones. From the world of silence to which we have been condemned, they knock on our conscience. To them, we say that our demands for justice, our search for the truth, our memory, and our love for them have never faltered,” Rodriguez-Maroni wrote in another letter.

In addition to her role as a Mother of Plaza de Mayo, she continued teaching in the working-class Cildañez neighborhood of Buenos Aires, even after her children’s disappearance. Alongside her daughter, Margarita Maroni, she remained active in the human rights movement.

Enriqueta Rodriguez-Maroni’s legacy endures as a beacon of struggle and dignity. She was not only the mother of two disappeared young people, but the mother of a cause that continues to challenge Argentine society: the pursuit of justice, the preservation of memory, and the rejection of oblivion.