SUNDAY
TIMES – SUDAFRICA - 02 SEPTEMBER 2017
The
case of an Argentine activist for indigenous rights whose family says
he disappeared while in police custody is raising dark memories of
the country's years of dictatorship.
Everywhere
from hospitals and bus stations to football grounds, signs have
appeared reading: "Where is Santiago Maldonado? The state is
responsible."
Campaign
groups say Maldonado, 27, was detained by state forces on August 1
after joining in a protest march by the Mapuche indigenous group.
On
Friday, marking a month since his disappearance, mothers with babies,
retirees and students joined a rally for Maldonado in Buenos Aires'
Plaza de Mayo - the symbolic site of protests for victims of the
dictatorship.
"This
transcends the issue of political affiliation," said
demonstrator Aepa Espinoza, 45, accompanied by his wife and two small
children who held a picture of Maldonado. "This case shows that
there are deep divisions in the country because we should all be
here," he said.
For
decades, relatives have been rallying on the square for the thousands
of people killed or "disappeared" by the military regime
from 1976 to 1983.
TRADUCCION
El
caso de un activista argentino por los derechos indígenas cuya
familia dice que desapareció mientras estaba bajo custodia policial
está trayendo recuerdos oscuros de los años de dictadura del país.
En todas partes, desde hospitales y estaciones de autobuses hasta
campos de fútbol, se han visto carteles que dicen: "¿Dónde
está Santiago Maldonado? EL Estado es responsable Grupos de la campaña dicen que Maldonado,
de 27 años, fue detenido por las fuerzas del estado el 1 de agosto
después de unirse a una marcha de protesta por parte del grupo
indígena Mapuche.
El
viernes, un mes después de su desaparición, madres con bebés,
jubilados y estudiantes se unieron a la manifestación de Maldonado
en la Plaza de Mayo de Buenos Aires, sede simbólica de protestas
para las víctimas de la dictadura.
"Esto
trasciende la cuestión de la afiliación política", dijo la
manifestante Aepa Espinoza, de 45 años, acompañada por su esposa y
dos niños pequeños que tenían una foto de Maldonado. "Este
caso demuestra que hay profundas divisiones en el país porque todos
debemos estar aquí", dijo. Durante décadas, los familiares
se han reunido en la plaza para los miles de muertos o
"desaparecidos" por el régimen militar de 1976 a 1983.
Continua
(sin traducción)
Campaigners
say 30,000 people were victims of forced "disappearances"
under the dictatorship - and hundreds of others even afterwards.
The
Coordinator Against Police and Institutional Repression, a
non-government campaign group, says 210 people have disappeared while
in police custody since the dictatorship ended. But the case of
Maldonado is the first one where state institutions, rather than
individual officers, have been seriously accused of involvement in a
disappearance. He is said to have last been seen being put into a
military police vehicle by officers who broke up a demonstration in
the southern province of Chubut.
"Santiago
was taken to the Gendarmerie," said Stella Maris Peloso,
Maldonado's mother, who dismissed the notion of her son being a
political militant. The accusations of state responsibility in
Maldonado's disappearance have been vociferously backed by campaign
groups, including the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. The
Grandmothers have campaigned for decades for the victims of the
country's 1976-1983 dictatorship. Ex-military leaders from that era,
including former dictator Jorge Videla, were sentenced to life in
prison in 1985.
"It
is tragic that in this, our country's longest ever period of
democracy, we should have to report the forced disappearance of a
person," the president of the Grandmothers, Estela de Carlotto,
told a news conference last month.
Norma
Rios, president of the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights, added:
"This is clearly the forced disappearance of a person by a state
entity."
In
a polarised country still haunted by the military dictatorship,
backers of President Mauricio Macri accuse supporters of the previous
government of Cristina Kirchner of putting together a campaign to
discredit the government by comparing its actions with that of the
dictatorship.
The
lack of answers and the defense of the paramilitary Gendarmerie's
actions in breaking up the protest by Security Minister Patricia
Bullrich have added to the atmosphere of injustice surrounding
Maldonado's disappearance.
Bullrich
maintains that tracking of the missing activist could not be
conducted in time and accused members of the Mapuche community of
putting obstacles in the way of the security forces' efforts to find
him. She has even cast doubt on whether Maldonado took part in the
demonstration at all.
For
Amnesty International, the state has a clear case to answer.
"The
state must make every effort to find Maldonado, even more so if it is
taken into account that Santiago disappeared in the context of a
social protest where Gendarmerie intervened," said Mariela
Belski, Amnesty's executive director in Argentina.
The
demonstrators had been demanding the release of a jailed Mapuche
leader.
Maldonado
moved from the Buenos Aires area to Chubut last year.
He
arrived in Patagonia as a backpacker, and joined the demonstration
purely out of a sense of social justice, his family and friends say.
The
Mapuche are considered the earliest inhabitants of parts of Argentina
and Chile.
Their
numbers were reduced after the Spanish conquest and subsequent
independence of the countries. They have since pursued historical
claims against the authorities for territory and rights.
A
small Mapuche community in Chubut is claiming territory in an area
of land bought by Italian fashion magnate Luciano Benetton two
decades ago.
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