Her’ father Jorge Horacio Zorreguieta was a controversial figure when he served as a member of the Argentine Junta in the 1970s.
He appointed as an Agriculture Minister, he dedicatedly doing his job but his connections to the brutal Videla regime were cause for concern in the leadup to Maxima’s royal wedding.
Under his 5 years regime, approximately 30 thousand people are believed to disappear with thousands of them supposedly kidnapped and murdered.
Led by former Argentine President Videla, a dictator who ruled the nation from 1976 until 1981, and with democracy only returned in 1983, the regime was brutal and bloody.
However, Jorge Horacio Zorreguieta denies all the claimed that he did not know the government’s dealing outside of agriculture.
The Dutch Parliament wasn’t convinced, however, and carried out an inquiry into his involvement in the regime in the leadup to Maxima’s marriage to Prince Willem-Alexander.
It was concluded there was no way he could have held such a high position in the government and still have zero knowledge of the Dirty War.
As such, it was decided Zorreguieta would not be allowed to attend his daughter’s royal wedding in 2002, though Maxima would still be allowed to wed Willem-Alexander despite her father’s background.
It was a blow for Maxima, who was likelys hoping to have her father walk her down the aisle.
Though her mother, María del Cármen Cerruti Carricart, would have technically been allowed at the nuptials, she chose to stay away with her husband.
Maxima’s siblings and half-siblings, all children of Zorreguieta, did attend the ceremony.