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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Comment
Miriam Lewin

I was disappeared under Argentina’s dictatorship. I know how autocracy begins

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo engage in an anti-government protest over the imprisonment and kidnappings of their husbands and children, many of them Argentinian journalists, in Buenos Aires, 1977.
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo engage in an anti-government protest over the imprisonment and kidnappings of their husbands and children, many of them Argentinian journalists, in Buenos Aires, 1977. Photograph: Anonymous/AP

Like so many others, I watched the video of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, as she was surrounded by men dressed in black, some wearing masks. They carried guns. One grabbed her by the collar. The men surrounded her, and one handcuffed her. You can hear her short shrieks of fear.

She must have been terrified. I know I was when, as a 19-year-old student, I was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires by members of an irregular taskforce. I know what it feels like and I know what it portends.

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