Thousands protest over missing indigenous activist in Argentina

[sandensea]

A missing campaigner for indigenous rights prompted thousands of people to march through Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires on Friday.

It is feared that Santiago Maldonado, 28, may have been taken away by police in Patagonia ten days ago, when security forces evicted Mapuche indians from land owned by the Italian clothing firm Benetton.

Witnesses reported seeing Maldonado beaten by officers as he clung to a tree, and then taken away in a Gendarmerie vehicle.

Human rights groups and the UN have expressed concern. Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action alert on August 9 calling on President Mauricio Macri to “carry out a full and impartial investigation” and to “guarantee the physical integrity of the Mapuche community.”

The case has revived memories of disappearances in the past, when up to 30,000 were murdered by the authorities during Argentina's last dictatorship in the late 1970s.

“Forty years ago, during the military dictatorship, we shouted: ‘they took them, we want them alive, the guilty must be punished’. It’s unacceptable that today, with a constitutional government, we have to do so again,” said Taty Almeida of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo human rights group.

“I think it could have happened to any of us, we have ideals and we fight for what we think. No one should disappear for fighting for their ideas and for what they believe,” added another young protester, Sofia Palermo.

The case has highlighted a long-running conflict between Benetton, which grazes sheep on land it owns in Patagonia to produce wool, and the Mapuche people – who claim ancestral territory over a small portion of Benetton's land.

The government, which has denied involvement in Maldonado's disappearance, has offered a reward for information after a UN committee called for action. A police search on Friday located a rope with dried human blood and hair in a Gendarmerie station in El Bolsón, near the site of the disappearance.

At: http://www.euronews.com/2017/08/12/argentina-thousands-protest-over-missing-indigenous-activist

[Judi Lynn]

1. It really looks as if they murdered this man, doesn't it? If only he had been able to escape.

Doesn't sound as if that would have been possible, after the police beating, and the recovered rope with human hair and blood.

Looks as if the reich wing is back in business. May the monsters burn in hell.

May Santiago Maldonado rest in peace. His life was far too short. He died for his righteous beliefs.