Brother identifies body of missing Argentine protester Santiago Maldonado

[sandensea]

Last edited Fri Oct 20, 2017, 10:27 PM - Edit history (1)

The brother of an Argentine protester whose disappearance prompted nationwide demonstrations said Friday that the family believes a body found in a river is that of activist Santiago Maldonado.

The family is now "convinced that the body is Santiago," his brother, Sergio Maldonado, told reporters outside a morgue in Buenos Aires where the autopsy was performed.

“We saw the body. We recognized Santiago’s tattoos so we are convinced it is Santiago,” he said.

The body was found Tuesday near the site of a protest on August 1, when Maldonado, 28, was last seen alive. Protesters were demanding the release of a jailed Mapuche indigenous leader and the return of lands belonging to Italian clothing company Benetton that are claimed by the Mapuche as their ancestral territory.

People at the protest said they saw police beat and detain Maldonado after he and others blocked a road in Patagonia.

Police never confirmed the arrest and denied wrongdoing. But some rights groups accused President Mauricio Macri's government of being part a cover-up.

His being located nearly a mile upstream from where he was last seen has led his family and rights groups to suspect his body may have been planted.

"It's very strange that the body was found where it was, when we have searched those same places and there was nothing," Sergio Maldonado pointed out. "We want to know the truth. "

The Maldonado case has overshadowed Sunday’s congressional election in a country where potential cases of abuse by security forces are particularly sensitive. It has also spurred mass protests and campaigns on social media demanding to know what happened to Maldonado.

At: http://newsok.com/article/feed/1467169

Santiago Maldonado

[Judi Lynn]

1. Sorry for my tunnel vision, I didn't see your earlier article until a moment ago!

I'm certain you are 100% right with the comments you made a couple of days ago.

Even though it didn't look like anyone would ever see this man alive again, it's so intensely sad that people working on behalf of the Argentinian right-wing were able to do this to someone for having more decent beliefs than they.

If they can't win through honest elections, their next move is always to cheat, and after that, murder and terror.

It doesn't look as if it's going to get much better until Macri and his dirty associates are gone, does it?

Thanks for your article, and apologies for not seeing it in time to fix my mistake.

[sandensea]

2. On the contrary - thank you, Judi.

I'm of the opinion that no matter how many times I post about a particular event or subject, it's never really complete until your post (which is usually the first anyway!).

As for Maldonado, I understand that few in Argentina believe the Macri administration on this anymore. They've changed their story so often, and lied so much, that even many of his supporters are embarrassed to tow the party line on this.

71% of Argentines, according to a poll Macri himself commissioned, consider his government responsible for this young man's death. Their choosing to plant his body in the river like this will only add to the public outrage - especially for the clumsy, botched way in which they went about it.

I mean: a mile upstream, and three days before major mid-term elections? That dog don't hunt.

Thanks again!