you're gambling with world war iii. you're gambling with world war iii. >> vladimir putin watches the video from the oval office and what does he see? >> vladimir putin couldn't be happier, scott. because what he sees is all the pressure on zelenskyy. all of the pressure on ukraine. and no pressure on him. >> the allies look at the video and see what? >> what they see is something that's just confounding. a discussion that doesn't reflect the reality of the war in ukraine. the degree to which this war is a crime against humanity. [ stopwatch ticking ] tonight, the saga of an airplane that doubled as an instrument of murder. during argentina's ruthless dictatorship in the mid-'70s,

the skyvan pa-51 was used to throw victims alive in the atlantic ocean, to quote/unquote, shows of innocent citizens seems a threat to the state. >> dumping prisoners out of an airplane seems so extreme. why would a military resort to this? >> no trail, no clues whatsoever, that could incriminate them. [ stopwatch ticking ] >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm cecilia vega. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and more tonight on "60 minutes." [ stopwatch ticking ] ♪ are you having any fun? ♪ ♪ what you getting out of living? ♪ ♪ who cares for what you've got ♪ ♪ if you're not having any fun? ♪ ♪ are you having any laughs? ♪ ♪ are you getting any loving? ♪

♪ if other people do, why can't you? ♪ ♪ have a little fun ♪ ♪ and have ♪ ♪ have a little fun ♪ in the wayborhood, every delivery is a treat. one pistachio for you, sir. one strawberry poof, please. oh. enjoy it. oh, poofect. bye waybor. something minty? of course, it's a large.

[ gasps ] ♪ ♪ a double. lucky. ♪ wayfair. every style. every home. ♪ are you 50 or older? you already know the importance of shingles protection. but did you know? a pneumococcal pneumonia vaccination is now recommended too. why? if you're 50 or older, you're at 6.4 times greater risk of getting pneumococcal pneumonia. so schedule at vaxassist.com today.

when migraine strikes, do you question the trade-offs of treating? ubrelvy is another option. it works fast, and most have migraine pain relief within two hours. you can treat it anytime, anywhere. tell your doctor all medicines you take. don't take if allergic or with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. get help right away for allergic reactions like trouble breathing; face, mouth, tongue, or throat swelling; which may occur hours to days after. side effects include nausea and sleepiness. migraine pain relief starts with you. learn how abbvie could help you save on ubrelvy.

a most dangerous war took a perilous turn on friday, in what was planned to be a brief, cordial greeting. president trump and ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy, squared off in the oval office and left an alliance shaken. for three years, the west has stood against russia's unprovoked invasion of an innocent country. ukraine is a vanity war for russian dictator vladimir putin, who covets an empire. and for that alone, more than 1 million have been killed or wounded on both sides. president trump has boasted only he can end it quickly. but in the last two weeks, his chaotic attempt, alarmed allies and encouraged enemies. by friday, he was scolding the

man who stands between russia and the rest of europe. >> you're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel. we're going to feel very good and very strong. >> you will feel your influence. >> you're right now, not in a very good position. you've allowed yourself to be in a very bad position. >> that is from the beginning of the war -- >> you're not in a good position. you don't have the cards right now. >> we're not playing cards. i am serious, mr. president. >> you're playing cards. >> i want to see it. i'm the president in a war. >> you're gambling with lives of millions of people. you're gambling with world war iii. you're gambling with world war iii. >> the meeting itself was a gamble and the public had never seen anything like it. the president, dressing down zelenskyy, whose people had done all of the dying to stop putin short of the border of nato. vladimir putin watches the video from the oval office and what

does he see? >> vladimir putin couldn't be happier, scott, because what he sees is all of the pressure on zelenskyy. all of the pressure on ukraine. and no pressure on him. >> reporter: h.r. mcmaster knows. he was national security adviser in trump's first term. he's a retired army general, senior fellow at the conservative hoover institution and a cbs news contributor. the allies look at the video from the oval office and see what? >> what they see is something that is just confounding, a discussion that doesn't reflect the reality of the war in ukraine. the degree to which this war has -- is a crime against humanity. and they think, you know, how can president trump be berating the leader of ukraine, while he says kind things about vladimir putin? >> reporter: we have seen those crimes against humanity in mass

graves of ukrainian civilians and in their obliterated cities. behind a murderous frontline, russia occupies 20% of ukraine and bombs all the rest. american-led sanctions isolated putin. but last month, president trump flipped u.s. policy on its head. he opened peace talks with russia and did not invite ukraine. at the same time, he spread a deceitful history of the war. >> today, i heard, we weren't invited. you've been there for three years. you should have ended it three years -- you should have never started it. but could have made a deal. >> reporter: ukraine did not start the war. next, the president said this -- >> we gave them, i believe, $350 billion, but let's say it's something less than that, but it's a lot. >> reporter: it's $122 billion, not $350 billion. the next day, trump went after zelenskyy. >> a dictator without elections,

zelenskyy better move fast or he's not going to have a country left. gotta move. gotta move fast because that war is going in the wrong direction. >> reporter: zelenskyy is not a dictator. he was elected in 2019. there hasn't been a vote since because of the war. on february 24th, trump's tilt toward russia reached the u.n., where america voted against its allies and sided with russia and north korea. opposing ukraine. alarmed, the leaders of france and britain hurried to the white house. in these last two weeks, we've heard him call zelenskyy a dictator. we've heard him say it was ukraine that started the war. what is going on? >> well, president trump, as we all know, has a tendency to say outlandish things. sometimes that's to shake the situation up and create some sense of change. but oftentimes, what he doesn't

cosider is how his words could impede his own agenda. or how his words can actually cut against u.s. interests or be received abroad in a way that's much different from the way his political supporters will receive those words in the united states. and so, those words were damaging, damaging to the psyche of the ukrainians. you know, war really is a contest of wills. and i think what you're seeing is donald trump delivering a series of body blows to the ukrainians in a way that could affect, you know, their will to continue to fight. >> reporter: zelenskyy's will to fight led him to push for the meeting friday. trump had demanded ukraine sign over the rights to billions of dollars in mineral wealth to pay america back. zelenskyy came to sign the deal. >> well, thank you very much. it's an honor to have president zelenskyy of ukraine. >> reporter: president trump began generously. >> i give tremendous credit to

your generals and your soldiers and yourself, in the sense that it's been very hard fighting, very tough fighting, great fighters. and you have to be very proud of them from that standpoint. but now, we want to get it over with. >> reporter: these public, oval office meetings are planned for weeks, with issues settled in advance. but this was hasty. neither side was prepared. trump spoke of loss in the war, both the victim and the aggressor. >> they're not american soldiers. but they're russian soldiers and they're ukrainian soldiers and we want to be able to stop it. >> reporter: zelenskyy seemed irritated when his people were equated to the invading russians. >> whether they're in russia or ukraine, think of the parents of all these people being killed needlessly. >> they came to our territory. >> should have never started. >> reporter: trump helped arm zelenskyy in trump's first term.

but now, he has all but cut off aid. trump is pushing a quick cease-fire, without an international guarantee of ukraine's security, which is russia's position, too. >> i'm not aligned with putin. i'm not aligned with anybody. i'm aligned with the united states of america and for the good of the world. i'm aligned with the world. and i want to get this thing over with. you see the hatred he's got for putin. it's very tough for me to make a deal with that kind of hate. he's got tremendous hatred. >> reporter: protocol prevailed for 40 minutes until vice president j.d. vance said diplomacy could have ended the war long ago. >> the path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy. >> can i ask you? >> sure. >> yeah? >> yeah. >> okay. >> reporter: vance had struck a nerve with a man who has buried tens of thousands of his countrymen. it got worse when vance told zelenskyy he'd seen ukraine, on tv.

zelenskyy explained that putin, a mass murderer, indicted for war crimes, could not be trusted. a cease-fire without a security guarantee would be naive. >> what kind of diplomacy, j.d., you are speaking about? what do you mean? >> i'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country. mr. president -- mr. president, with respect, i think it's disrespectful to come in the oval office and try to litigate this in front of the american media. >> reporter: it was the white house that called in the media. ukraine's ambassador couldn't bear to watch. >> the problem is, i've empowered you to be a tough guy. and i don't think you'd be a tough guy without the united states. and your people are very brave. but you are either going to make a deal or we're out. and if we're out, you'll find it out. i don't think it's going to be pretty. but you'll fight it out. but you don't have the cards. but once we sign that deal, you're in a much better position.

but you're not acting at all thankful. and that's not a nice thing. i'll be honest. that's not a nice thing. >> reporter: immediately after the meltdown, many republicans rallied around the president, saying zelenskyy was at fault. but republican congressman don bacon has worried about trump's approach to ukraine since last month. >> i hope it's not as bad as it sounds. >> reporter: congressman bacon represents omaha. he's a retired air force general who knows what america means to nato. >> america's the leader of the free world. we're the indispensable power. nobody can stand up to russia and china if we're not a part of that. and ukraine is the victim. and putin has made clear he wants to re-establish his old borders. that's not in our national security interest. to me, this is a national security issue. also a moral issue. >> reporter: would you say that donald trump is appeasing vladimir putin? >> it appears that way. i can't get into his motives. i don't know his motives.

some think he's doing this for negotiating and maybe get a better deal. i don't know. all i know is what he says and he says that russia is not the invader, that's ukraine's fault, that's just wrong. >> reporter: is there danger in this? >> yep, there is. i fear what this means, we've had -- we came out of world war ii, you know, the dominant power, the indispensable country for freedom. we had nato. and i worry that this framework is going to collapse. >> reporter: when the united states sided with russia and north korea at the united nations, what message did that send? >> well, the first message it sent to me was shame. >> reporter: senator angus king is an independent from maine, serving on the armed services and intelligence committees. >> i always try to think of, you know, what's the argument on both sides? i cannot think of a rational argument for pulling our support from ukraine.

>> reporter: senator king likes to point out that europe has given more than the u.s. and ukraine has given the most. >> they've done the dying. all they've asked for us is to send them the means to defend themselves. >> reporter: in this moment, what should congress be doing about ukraine? >> i think they have to start speaking up because if we persist in walking away from ukraine, it will be the greatest geopolitical mistake this country has made since world war ii. >> reporter: back in the oval office, president trump revealed something of a common cause with the russian president. trump complained he and putin had been slandered for years by allegations that russia helped trump's campaigns, allegations trump ties to his democratic opponents. >> let me tell you, putin went through a hell of a lot with me. he wenthrough a phony witch hunt, where they used him and russia. russia, russia, russia.

did you hear of that deal? that was a phony hunter biden, joe biden scam. hillary clinton, shifty adam schiff, who was a democrat scam. he had to go through that. and he did go through it. we didn't end up in a war. and he wn through it. he was accused with that stuff. he had nothing to do with it. it came out of hunter biden's bathroom. it came out of hunter biden's bedroom. it was disgusting. >> reporter: that rant was familiar to trump's first term national security adviser, h.r. mcmaster. mcmaster left the white house after 13 months in a falling out with the president. but even back then, he was warning trump about vladimir putin. >> he appeals to president trump's sense of agrievement, rght? donald, like me, you've been treated so unfairly. and he's been very successful at it because he's a master manipulator. and one of the best liars in the world.

>> reporter: you seem to be saying that president trump is being played. >> he is being played. and he's being played like other presidents have been played, like other leaders have been played, through that same playbook of putin's. >> reporter: today, the allies stood with zelenskyy. in london, a flash summit was arranged, with leaders including those of canada, france, germany, italy, the head of nato and the british prime minister, who announced new negotiations by britain and france potentially taking the lead for peace out of the hands of president trump. >> all right. i think we've seen enough. what do you think? [ stopwatch ticking ]

(vo) this tax season, do more than just catch up. spring forward, with a free 5g phone with select straight talk plans... so you can spring for those new sneakers they need (grandma) oh, those are nice! (vo) ...the unlimited streaming he needs... (dad) let's go post 'em up. (vo) and with straight talk... (mom) guys! (kids) the floor is lava! (vo) spring for something you never knew you needed. (kid) i'm jumping so high! (vo) spring forward with real unlimited data and get a free 5g phone with select plans on america's most reliable 5g network. find us at walmart and straighttalk dot com. from the #1 rated brand in cordless outdoor power, the ego zero-turn riding mower with e-steer technology. drives like a car. turns on a dime. and it cuts up to 2.5 acres on a single charge. find an ego retailer near you.

a chewy order is on the way for radar — who knows that sounds means... kibble... squeaky toy... ...and birdseed. delivered fast — at prices everyone loves. for low prices. for life with pets, there's chewy if you have generalized myasthenia gravis, picture what life could look like with... vyvgart hytrulo, a subcutaneous injection that takes about 30 to 90 seconds. for one thing, could it mean more time for you? vyvgart hytrulo can improve daily abilities and reduce muscle weakness with a treatment plan that's personalized to you. do not use vyvgart hytrulo if you have a serious allergy to any of its ingredients. it can cause serious allergic reactions like trouble breathing and decrease in blood pressure leading to fainting and allergic reactions such as rashes, swelling under the skin, shortness of breath, and hives. the most common side effects are respiratory and urinary tract infections, headache, and injection site reactions. it may increase the risk of infusion-related

reactions and infection. tell your doctor if you have a history of infections or symptoms of an infection. talk to your neurologist about vyvgart hytrulo for gmg and picture your life in motion. every once in a while, we come across a story so extraordinary, it resists belief.

tonight, the saga of an airplane that doubled as an instrument of murder. during argentina's ruthless dictatorship in the mid-'70s, the skyvan pa-51 was used to throw victims alive into the atlantic ocean. to quote/unquote disappear thousands of innocent citizens seen as a threat to the state. those disappeared were meant never to reappear. 40 years after the end of the dictatorship, many of its crimes remain unsolved and unresolved. when an unlikely pair of investigators went looking for the death plane, their search for truth uncovered state secrets, damning evidence, and a reminder of a dark period that echoes into the present. it was quite literally a vehicle for evil. this british-made skyvan, now 50 years old, is grounded for good here at the former navy school of mechanics or esma, in a buenos aires neighborhood. it's a museum and a memorial for the 30,000 citizens tortured and

murdered during the dictatorship. this was a death camp looming large in the middle of the city. images of the victims adorn the walls. many were students and union members never charged with a crime. this plane, where many of them mt their death, would have been lost in the contrails of history, had it not been for an italian documentary photographer giancarlo ceraudo. >> why was it important to return it to esma? >> this is important for the memory for the next generation. this is real. this is an evidence. this was an instrument of death but now is a witness. >> reporter: the cockpit, just as it was when the military pilots flew their clandestined death missions, flying far enough over the atlantic, so the bodies wouldn't likely be recovered and then dumping the victims out alive.

to climb inside the plane is to experience an unmistakable chill of the past. giancarlo grew up loving planes. but this flying coffin ended that romance. you're emotional seeing this. >> si, very emotional. very emotional. >> reporter: how did a young, italian photographer, armed only with a camera, an eye or detail and burning curiosity, come to unravel one of the great national shames of argentina? it all began in 2003, when ceraudo was in buenos aires working on a project about the disappeared. he heard about the death flights in the 1970s but the stories were never fully told. so many unanswered questions and so little accountability. if there were flights, he reasoned, surely, there were planes and there were pilots. so, where were they? you knew those death flights existed. how did you start your search for the planes? >> i had an idea.

but to start the investigation, started with miriam. >> reporter: miriam is miriam lewin. she was a young student activist in 1977, when she was kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused. she was taken to esma and was among the few who survived. though she never knew quite why. later, she became a leading investigative journalist in argentina, best known for unearthing the crimes of the dictatorship. when ceraudo first contacted miriam she told him she had other things on her mind. >> i said, look, we're looking for the desaparecidos, the missing people. and then, we started looking for the bodies. so, we had plenty to think about. >> reporter: people, not things. >> yeah. and he said, i come from a different culture. in rome, when they're digging a tunnel to extend the subway lines, they find a plate or a sculpture and they stop everything for, like, three

years. right? >> reporter: he comes from a culture where objects are witnesses to history. and that hadn't occurred to anyone here. >> yeah. >> reporter: giancarlo's passion paired with miriam's reporting chops and her own experience at esma. she'd seen other prisoners taken to the basement and given what they were told was a vaccine. only years later did she learn that it was a sedative, and those drugged prisoners were put onboard planes, flown over the ocean and stripped of their clothes before being flung to their deaths. dumping prisoners out of an airplane 10,000 feet above an ocean seems so extreme. why would a military resort to this? >> death flights allowed them to disappeared the bodies of the disappeared. no trail. no clues whatsoever, that could incriminate them.

giancarlo began their search, poring over military records, hunting down sources and combing the internet. they discovered in the 1970s, the argentine military purchased five skyvans, workhorses, used for transporting cargo, troops and -- >> leading parachutists of many nations have dropped from skyvan. they are unanimous, there's not another jump platform like it. >> reporter: two of the fleet were shot down by the british during the falklands war. argentina's surrender in that conflict ended the dictatorship in 1983. the rest for sold off. they tracked one plane to the united states, where it was being used for skydiving excursions. >> maybe the owners didn't know about the terrible, obscure pasts of these planes. >> reporter: in 2008, miriam and giancarlo found the plane in ft. lauderdale. and later paid it a visit. to their surprise, the owner

provided them with all of the technical logs, detailing every journey the plane had ever flown. >> i was very, very excited. i couldn't believe that. i couldn't believe it. >> reporter: they brought the logs back to argentina and asked for help deciphering the technicalities. but even decades after the dictatorship ended, there was still lingering paranoia. aviation experts didn't want to talk. >> what they said, no, no. no way. they could kill me. >> reporter: but they were nothing if not persistent. they tracked down a source who explained the highly suspicious journeys wednesday nights, tracing a route over the middle of the ocean. the departure and arrival points the same. >> when he looks at them and goes, oh, gosh. this is gold. >> reporter: why did he say that? >> this is the first time that death flights could be documented and proven. >> reporter: finding the logs was one thing. but miriam and giancarlo were

determined to solve one of the most notorious and heinous abductions of the dictatorship. every week, the mothers of the disappeared marched in the plaza de mayo in front of the presidential palace, demanding to know the existence of their sons and daughters. the mothers became the most potent symbol of resistance against the dictatorship. and soon, they became targets themselves. [ singing ] >> reporter: in december 1977, a group of 12 mothers and their supporters, including two french nuns, were meeting here at the holy cross church in buenos aires when they were hauled away and taken to esma. they were seen by fellow prisoners being tortured and then, never seen again. azucena villaflor was one of the mothers. she had been searching in vain for her son that had disappeared.

cecilia de vincenti is her daughter. what did you think had happened? >> translator: in reality, we didn't know what happened. every day, we thought she was coming back. new year's. mother's day. every day we live like this. >> reporter: what cecilia and the other victims' families didn't know, the days after the kidnapped were last seen, a rare storm washed up six bodies some 220 miles from buenos aires. authorities in the nearby towns buried them in graves. and a doctor noted the bodice had suffered multiple blunt force traumas. what did that mean? >> this means they were compatible with those bodies having fallen from height. >> reporter: in the years after democracy was restored, forensic anthropologists began unearthing evidence of the dictatorship's crimes.

in 2005 bodies in the cemetery were exhumed and identified. five were victims of the holy cross kidnapping. azucena villaflor was one of them. the purpose of the death flights was to disappear the victims and sink to the bottom of the ocean. your mother did not disappear, did she? >> reporter: the mothers and the nuns fought death just as they fought when they were looking for their children. the ocean brought them back as proof that the military was trying to disappear them. >> reporter: miriam and giancarlo began building a timeline for the days after the 12 were kidnapped from the holy cross church. ands there it was in the logs, a three-hour flight over the atlantic on the night of december 14, 1977. and what's more, the logs contained a name of the pilots. >> i think this plane is a gift from the sky. >> reporter: for miriam, a hard-boiled investigative journalist, this was the jackpot.

>> i thought that no one would deny what happened back then seeing that proof, seeing that horrible proof of a group of women being thrown alive into the ocean, being mothers and nuns, right? innocent people, completely innocent people. >> reporter: the pilots of those death flights, they were hiding in plain sight. it was a glimpse into the banality of evil. two of them were flying international commercial routes for argentina state airline. miriam and giancarlo's investigation figured prominently in the largest and perhaps most sensational trial in the country's history, in 2017, decades after the pack, an argentine court convicted 48

people linked to esma for crimes against humanity. the pilots who flew the skyvan pa-51 death flights were sentenced to life in prison. [ cheering ] for miriam and giancarlo, there was one last assignment, binging the skyvan back from the united states to argentina, where it would be a source of truth, irrefutable evidence of the horrors of the past. >> questioning, denying, or even vindicating what happened in those years will lead us into darkness again. we always said, never again. >> reporter: so, it was on a misty morning in june 2023, the skyvan pa-51 arrived at its final destination. giancarlo was there taking the last pictures of this personal odyssey, this 20-year investigation. the families and friends of the victims were there, as well. >> you have to consider that i

could have been a passenger on one of those flights. so, i always ask myself, why i survived? >> reporter: i wonder if this investigation helped provide an answer? >> yes. now, i know definitely that there was a goal. there was a purpose, of my survival, to get justice. >> reporter: one mystery of argentina's dictatorship finally solved. but most of the families of the 30,000 disappeared never learned what happened to their loved ones. when we come back, we'll tell you about one family's decades-long search for a missing baby. [stopwatch ticking]

congratulations. here are the keys. congratulations. here's the water heater that somehow passed inspection but will definitely flood your basement. -wait. -congratulations. here's your first year's supply of nitrogen fertilizer. remember, not too little or too much or you'll kill your lawn. -okay. -congratulations. here's progressive's homequote explorer. -uh-oh. -you're good. you can quickly compare insurance options and find the right coverage even if it's not with us. what's the bad news? [ indistinct conversations ] i skipped the line. this is a 15 second ad. clinique moisture surge only needs three seconds to soothing hydration. with a few more left to tell you about it's exclusive blend of ingredients, how it's dermatologist tested, safe for sensitive skin and allergy tested, and fragrance free.

what more can i say? mirajoy: the overwhelming relief after miralax® helps you “go” miralax® works naturally with the water in your body. putting you in a supernaturally good mood. miralax®: free your gut to free your mood.

i'm not happy with the way that pg&e handled the wildfires. yeah. yeah. i totally, totally understand. we're adding a ton of sensors. as soon as something comes in contact with the power line, it'll turn off so that there's not a risk that it's gonna fall to the ground and start a fire. okay. and i want you to be able to feel the improvements. we've been able to reduce wildfire risk from our equipment by over 90%. that's something i want to believe.

[skateboard sounds] [stopwatch ticking] >> argentina returned to democracy in 1983, but the trauma of those seven years of dictatorship persists. while more than a thousand military officials have been tried and convicted for kidnapping, torturing and murdering argentine citizens, most of the families of the 30,000 disappeared never learned what happened to their loved ones. tonight we'll tell you of one family's search for a baby stolen by the military in 1978. it's a story about truth and memory, both of which have been attacked under the country's president javier milei, a populist leader who has vowed to make argentina great again.

after years of economic stagnation and runaway inflation, in 2023, argentina elected an economist as its president, avenuier milei, a chainsaw-toting, self-proclaimed sex guru and true libertarian. while he's met favor for revitalizing the national economy and slashing bureaucracy, he has met criticism for ides open sympathy for military rule, its denial of its brutality and his defunding of human rights programs. >> translator: after 40 years of democracy, we never thought we would have to fight against these denialists. but we know the truth. we lost an election. but we won't give up. we will resist. which is what we've done all our lives. >> reporter: age 94, taty almeida is the president of the mothers of the plaza de mayo. for half a century, she's been searching for her son, alejandro, who left for classes one day and never to return. >> translator: when they took

the most precious thing a mother has, a child, we went out like lionesses, looking for our cubs. >> they called you the crazy ones. you didn't take that as an insult. were you crazy? >> translator: we were crazy with pain, with rage, with helplessness because we mothers know what it's like to carry a child for nine months in the womb and then have it ripped away from you like that. >> reporter: 25 years ago, "60 minutes" correspondent bob simon came to the plaza de mayo, to report on the story of patricia roisinblit. in 1978, she was eight months pregnant, when she and her husband, jose, were hauled away by armed government thugs. patricia was taken here to the esma death camp. human rights groups estimate that 500 babies were born in camps to mothers kept alive only

long enough to give birth before being killed. in a systematic campaign, their stolen babies were then given to childless military couples. back then, bob simon spoke to patricia's friend and fellow prisoner, miriam lewin, yes, the same investigative journalist who discovered the death plane. >> why did they keep the babies arrive? >> maybe they thought of it as an act of humanity. >> an act of humanity, to take children away from the people they labeled enemies of the state and raised them as patriots. save the baby from the -- >> subversive germ of the babies' parents and grandparents? >> that's right. >> reporter: she remembered patricia in the brief moments after her baby was born, before he was taken away. he was a beautiful and healthy baby boy, almost blonde. and she told me, his name is going to be rodolfo.

and she was smiling. >> patricia roisinblit was never seen again. nor was her husband. her mother, rosa, spent years searching police stations, hospitals and orphanages for baby rodolfo. you and the other grandmotherses have found 64 children. ? yes. >> you must be pretty good detectives. how do you do it? >> translator: yes, we are detectives. we call each other detectives. we call each other sherlock holmes. >> reporter: the search for her own grandchild, was anything but elementary. rosa became a founding member of the grandmothers of the plaza de mayo. she spent years searching for him. she was joined by her granddaughter rodolfo's older sister mariana. she was in her early 20s when "60 minutes" interviewed her. >> i have a lot of hope that his comes to realize that he has been living a lie and he would

come looking for me. >> reporter: 25 years later we returned to buenos aries. today, mariana is 47 years old. rosa is 105. in 2000, days after our initial report aired, mariana received an anonymous tip about a man who might be her brother. his name, guillermo gomez. he was working in a fast food restaurant in a buenos aires suburb. so, she went to visit him. you have been envisioning this moment for basically your whole life. what was the emotion? >> translator: at that moment, i felt disassociated. i had a feeling of peace and relief and that everything would be okay. >> reporter: you're 21 years old. you're working in a fast food restaurant. and all of a sudden, one day a young woman comes to see you. what happened that day? >> translator: first of all, she asks me my full name. most people don't go around asking people on the street their full name, with their whole identity, right?

that seemed strange to me. i denied that i was her brother. i had a document with a different name and birth date. i didn't believe it. i didn't understand it. >> reorter: it was a brief encounter. but before departing, mariana left him a book of the photographs of the disappeared, including her parents. when guillermo saw the photograph of her father, jose, he was stunned. >> translator: it's like in a science fiction movie when you see a picture of yourself in the past. it was a picture of me in the past. i felt that mariana's father didn't just look similar, but identical. >> reporter: you felt that in your heart? >> translator: yes, you can say that. >> reporter: a photograph of a man that lack looked like him was one thing. but a dna test could confirm his real parentage. did you hope it turned one way or the other? >> translator: i was very afraid. at that moment i didn't know who i was. >> the results, guillermo and mariana were siblings, they

tried to cut through time. it wasn't a reunion, just a union. soon, they learned the truth. the couple who raised him, francisco gomez and wife dora had not only seized him after his mother patricia's murder, but who worked in argentina's air force intelligence had taken part in patricia's capture. how did it feel that not only the people you thought were your parents for the first 20 years of your life, weren't your parents. but they had abducted, had appropriated you? >> translator: it's a very, very confusing time because it's like all the ties that you have at that moment are cut. and you're absolutely alone. >> reporter: from that moment of revelation, guillermo's life cleaved into two parts -- the lie and the painful search for truth as he rebuilt his identity and learned about his real parents, whom he would never meet. what is it like for you to see these pictures here? >> translator: it's necessary so that those who come here know they aren't just a number.

they aren't just a grave that doesn't exist, you know? they were people. they were people that had a life that was interrupted. they had dreams. they were ordinary people, like the rest. >> reporter: the esma death camp, achingly, marks where he was born. and it's the site of his mother's death sentence, just days later. >> translator: the worst thing is what happened to me here, in this place. that was the worst. >> reporter: where we are right now? >> translator: of course. the worst is that i was born in captivity like a zoo animal. my mother was kidnapped. i was separated after three days. i was disappeared for 21 years. i'm a contradiction because i'm a disappeared person alive. i'm a person who was missing without knowing i was missing. guillermo says his childhood was unhappy and gomez was violent. he sometimes hoped gomez wasn't his real father. guillermo felt differently about dora, who had always tried her best, he says, to take care of him. it seems to me something

complicating this even more is that you have differentiated between how you feel about the man who raised you and the woman who raised you. >> translator: they were two completely different people. i was afraid of him, running away from him. and she, for a long time, was my whole world. she was the person i called mom. >> reporter: dora, the woman who raised you. >> translator: i see her and i love her and i need her in my life. the only thing i wished for the person i called mom was for nothing to happen to her. for her not to go to jail. >> reporter: but for mariana and rosa, the relationship with dora was a constant source of conflict. it felt like a betrayal. they wanted consequences. >> translator: every day, every morning, when she woke him up, she knew she had stolen someone else's son. and i don't forgive that. they stole a brother from me. and they stole him for all my life. >> reporter: you don't forgive and forget?

>> no. >> reporter: gomez appeared in court in 2016. and on the witness stand -- guillermo faced him and made one final plea. >> translator: i told him i needed to stop being in constant mourning for the death of my parents and that i needed to know when it happened. who had been responsible for their deaths and where their remains are. and he chose to say nothing. and that's what he chose as his last act of cruelty, to say nothing. >> reporter: gomez was sentenced to 12 years in prison for guillermo's abduction. dora was sentenced to three. after the trial, the siblings presented a unified front with their grandmother rosa. but their relationship was all but doomed from the beginning. so little in common apart from dna. they were, after all, separated for two decades. and there were struggles familiar to many siblings, jealousies, resentments, issues

with money. >> translator: life isn't a movie. i wish it was a hollywood production and this had a happy ending. the bottom line is, having been raised separated, not living together, we could never get over that distance between us. >> reporter: you don't have a relationship? >> translator: no. we won't be the first or last siblings that don't have a relationship. but she plays a very important role in my life. in my history. and i recognize how long she spent looking for me. >> reporter: today, a year into president milei's rule, amid his gutting austerity measures, these are convulsive times in argentina. when we were in buenos aires, mariana, a celebrated artist and writer was performing her latest experimental play to a packed audience. it was about dictatorship, conjured memories and her conflicted identity in the shadow of disappeared parets. do you ever wonder whether it would be easier not to have found him and just keep living with this fantasy, this mystery brother? >> translator: no.

no. i don't regret it. because i see the suffering of those who are still looking for a brother or sister. i don't think that in any sense, my life would be better if i was still looking for him because i would not have stopped for a moment. i wouldn't be at peace. we all know the seriousness of what the military have done. stealing the babies, raising them as their own children, lying to them, what happened broke everything. so, what's broken is broken. it's very difficult dfor us as society to accept that it's broken forever, but it's always better to know the painful truth than not knowing the truth at all. >> reporter: as for guillermo, 25 years after meeting mariana, at the fast food restaurant, he settled into his new identity. each week, he visits the offices of the grandmothers of the plaza de mayo in downtown buenos aires where only a couple of grandmothers are still active. today, he is a prominent human

rights lawyer and has taken grandma rosa's seat at the stable. for all of the complications and the pain, guillermo says he wouldn't have authored the story any differently. no regrets? there's no sense of my life would be better off if i never knew? >> no, never. >> reporter: you know the truth now. >> translator: i would live every day the same because that led me to where i am. my life today, with all of the difficulties i've experienced, is extremely positive and hopeful. >> reporter: right now, you're the person you should have been? >> si. [ stopwatch ticking ] how argentina's government cuts and layoffs are impacting the south american country's human rights groups at 60minutesovertime.com. knock, knock. #1 broker here for the #1 hit maker. thanks for swingin' by, carl. no problem. so, what are all of those for? ah, this one lets me adjust the bass. add more guitar. maybe some drums. wow, so many choices. yeah. like schwab.

i can get full-service wealth management, advice, invest on my own, and trade on thinkorswim. you know carl is the only frontman you need... oh i gotta take this carl, it's schwab. ♪ schwaaaab! ♪ have a choice in how you invest with schwab. i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. but thanks to skyrizi and clearer skin — i'm all in. with skyrizi, i saw dramatically clearer skin. and many even achieved 100% clear skin. ♪♪ don't use if allergic. serious allergic reactions, increased infections, or lower ability to fight them may occur. before treatment, get checked for infections and tb. tell your doctor about any flu-like symptoms or vaccines. with skyrizi, nothing on my skin means everything. ♪♪ ask your dermatologist about skyrizi today. until this week, my dad did not know where he was from. it means the world to share ancestry® with my dad. so nigeria, this is where it all started. so they've broken it down by regions, by journeys, and by parent. man, this is deep. this is my way of saying thank you to him.

the average dog only lives to be ten. at the farmer's dog, we don't think that's long enough. that's why our food comes in personalized portions. because a dog at a healthy weight could live a longer, happier life.

[chatter] it's a robotic money expert. clever. how do i start a savings habit? famous cabbage. savings habits. shaving rabbits. tech can make life simpler. but when it comes to savings habits, nothing's as simple as bmo. a bmo savings account helps you build the habit with a cash reward every month you save. cash reward? ingenious. sardine fest. this year's top prize goes to bmo. i'm just in it for the saving. it's nice to be recognized. [♪♪♪] [bmo sting]

[stopwatch ticking] now, "the last minute" of "60 minutes." >> last november, we told you about a brigade of robots invading the art world, putting some sculptors out of work. in an underground quarry in carrara italy, we met giacomo massari, the co-founder of a company that makes robots that sculpt. he showed us a colossal block of marble, weighing 200,000 pounds. you're going to move this block out of here in. >> we're going to move this big boy out of here. >> reporter: and once they had a crane big enough, they did. hoisting the marble on to a specially constructed platform. when completed, it will be one of the largest sculptures ever made by a robot. in the hills where michelangelo once worked with a hammer and chisel, history is being upended. >> i'm bill whitaker.

we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." with fatigue and light-headedness, i knew something was wrong. then i saw my doctor and found out i have afib, and that means there's about a 5 times greater risk of stroke. symptoms like irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, or light-headedness, can come and go. but if you have afib, the risk of stroke is always there. if you have one or more symptoms, get checked out. making that appointment can help you get ahead of stroke risk. this is no time to wait. (vo) explore the world the viking way ahead of stroke risk. from the quiet comfort of elegant small ships with no children and no casinos. we actually have reinvented ocean voyages, designing all-inclusive experiences for the thinking person. viking - voted world's best by both travel + leisure and condé nast traveler.

learn more at viking.com.