Alicia Oliveira

Alicia Beatriz Oliveira (24 November 1942 – 5 November 2014) was an Argentine jurist and politician known for her work in defense of human rights. She became friends with Father Jorge Bergoglio, later Pope Francis, who baptized her three children.

Biography Alicia Oliveira was born in San Fernando de la Buena Vista on 24 November 1942, the youngest of three siblings from a middle-class family. She studied law at the Universidad del Salvador.

In 1973 she took office as judge of the Juvenile Correctional Court of the Federal Capital, the first woman to hold the position.

In 1976, Oliveira clashed with a colonel of the Federal Penitentiary Service while investigating mistreatment of political prisoners at Devoto prison. Later that year, on 24 March, she was dismissed from her position as a judge by the de facto authorities, who denounced her as, "inept, subversive, and corrupt". After this, she was protected by Beroglio from persecution by the military dictatorship. Over the next six years, she filed more habeas corpus motions than any other lawyer in Buenos Aires. Vatican ambassador Eduardo Valdés later wrote, "She always thanked Father Jorge, who in those days kept her hidden in a car to see her children, whom she loved above all things, to see them at the Colegio del Salvador."

In 1979, she accompanied Emilio F. Mignone in the creation of the Center for Legal and Social Studies.

On 19 March 2013, she was part of the presidential entourage that traveled to Vatican City to witness the inauguration of Pope Francis. When Francis faced opposition within Argentina, accusing him of having been linked with the military dictatorship, Oliveira made statements defending him in an interview with Perfil: I used to meet Jorge twice a week. At that time the military had let me go from being a judge, and he would tell me what he was doing. [...] I remember that on Sundays we would go to Villa San Ignacio, where he was. We would have a meal, a small religious act, he would greet people, and there he took the opportunity to talk to people to get them out of the country. Once there was a young man who could not leave because he was very marked. But he resembled him. He gave him his identity card and his clerical collar so that he could escape. On 19 December, Pope Francis received her children in Vatican City, along with their spouses.

Oliveira is portrayed by Muriel Santa Ana in the Italian film Chiamatemi Francesco, which shows her friendship with Father Jorge Bergoglio.

In 2018, the Konex Foundation awarded her a posthumous Merit Diploma as one of the most important Argentine public administrators of the decade.