On 24 March 1976, there was a "coup d'etat" in Argentina that installed a regime (the "National Reorganization Process") founded on state terrorism. At that time, Ponce left the Communist Party that had grudgingly given her aid to start participating in the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) and to collaborate with the relatives of "desaparecidos" and to participate in the rounds in the Plaza de Mayo that originated the association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.