Santiago Maldonado: Body found in search for Argentine activist

[Judi Lynn]

Source: BBC News


4 hours ago



Major political parties in Argentina have suspended election campaigning after the discovery of a body thought to be that of a missing activist.

Santiago Maldonado, 28, was last seen in August during a confrontation between police and indigenous rights activists at a protest in Patagonia.

Mr Maldonado's disappearance caused a national outcry and has since become highly politicised.

The news comes ahead of Argentina's congressional elections on Sunday.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41674565

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DU'er sandensea has posted information on this political murder for DU readers in the Latin America forum for many weeks.

What a sorry ending to what appeared to be a political kidnapping and deadly assault weeks ago, and deep appreciation to the great background supplied by sandensea.

[sandensea]

1. Thank you for this update, Judi. As I mentioned, there's reason to believe the body was planted.

There's the implausibility of his being "found" after three searches turned up nothing - and a mile upstream from the spot he was last seen at that. And past searches - complete with divers, drones, trained dogs, etc. - had already covered these areas.

Again, I should note that forensics haven't as yet determined who this was. But if this turns out to be Maldonado, he was almost certainly planted there.

Macri's people, it's worth noting, have been caught lying about this case from day one - even going as far as to drag Chile into the case by claiming he was "hiding there, and with the knowledge of numerous Chileans."

Chile's President Bachelet shot down that trial balloon immediately by releasing cell phone data that proved he was never in Chile.

So why is Macri pulling this stunt now? "Finding" him would give the Macri administration its best chance of dismissing the death as an accidental drowning with which federal forces had "nothing to do with."

A very convenient way out - what with Amnesty International and the IACHR breathing down their necks and elections just four days away.

Thanks again, Judi - and thanks for the shout-out!

[burrowowl]

2. Thanks for the update

and thank you for your posts on Latin America!