Supporter of Mapuche protest camp disappears after being arrested in Argentina

Last edited Sat Aug 5, 2017, 09:25 PM - Edit history (1)

Members of the rural Mapuche community of Cushamen, in southwestern Argentina, and the Chubut Province Remembrance Commission (CPM) reported yesterday that an activist has disappeared after a protest crackdown last Tuesday by the National Gendarmerie, the federal militarized police force.

The activist, 28 year-old Santiago Maldonado, had arrived at the site the previous day to lend his support to the Mapuche protest camp, which had been organized last week to demonstrate against the arrest of their leader Facundo Jonas Huala in June.

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

The protest camp was ordered cleared on the day of Maldonado's arrest by Judge Guido Otranto. Otranto had been condemned by the Mapuche Community and human rights groups for ordering a similar crackdown in January which injured numerous protesters with rubber bullets.

Nine other protesters had been arrested in Tuesday's incident; but were later released. Despite inquiries by his family, Maldonado's whereabouts remain unknown.

The CPM filed a Habeas Corpus petition for Maldonado, and wrote a formal letter of inquiry to Security Minister Patricia Bullrich and President Mauricio Macri. Bullrich's chief adviser, Pablo Nocetti, personally supervised the August 1 crackdown, according to witnesses.

"Santiago's disappearance is the responsibility of the national and provincial governments," CPM president Víctor Mendibil said.

Argentina's Mapuche community has protested over the last two years against ongoing land purchases in ancestral areas by Italian businessman Luciano Benetton. Benetton has reportedly purchased over 3,400 mi² across the windswept Patagonia region since 1991; the disputed area around Cushamen covers around 1,500 acres (2.3 mi²).

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicargentina.com%2Fnotas%2F201708%2F22064-una-comunidad-mapuche-de-chubut-denuncia-que--hay-un-desaparecido-tras-represion-de-gendarmeria.html

Santiago Maldonado