Rights commission urges Argentina to find missing activist

[sandensea]

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is urging Argentina to find a missing activist last seen when police evicted a group of Mapuche Indians from lands owned by Italian clothing company Benetton.

The commission’s president said Thursday that Argentina should investigate the Aug. 1 disappearance of 28-year-old Santiago Maldonado and make its findings public.

Maldonado’s family and numerous witnesses say border police detained him when he and others were blocking a road in Chubut Province, in Patagonia. The protesters were demanding the release of a jailed Mapuche leader wanted by Chile. Authorities deny any wrongdoing.

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich faced calls to resign this week after giving false testimony in Congress and later divulging the name of a man, Ariel Garzi, who had been at the site of Maldonado's disappearance and was under witness protection.

Maldonado’s case has sparked protests in Argentina, where an estimated 30,000 people died or disappeared during the 1976-83 military dictatorship.

The IACHR has also condemned the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration for its arbitrary detention of indigenous activist Milagro Sala, whom the commission on July 28 demanded be granted house arrest after verifying she had been mistreated in prison.

At: https://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/world/the_americas/human-rights-body-urges-argentina-to-find-missing-activist/2017/08/24/8d60803a-88f4-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. People should not have to wait 10 or 20 years before the truth is known about what happened.

This sounds exactly like the Dirty War tactics employed to generate terror among the people to make them so afraid they would try to avoid torture and murder themselves.

If only there were a chance Santiago Maldonado had somehow survived that brutal beating, got untied and gone into hiding. . .

Undoubtedly hundred of thousands of people kept those thoughts and prayers going for so many, many years after their loved ones were taken by the earlier fascists.

Very best hope Milagro Sala will be able to recover psychologically from the hell the Gov. and Macri put her through. She deserves time to heal and get some distance from her torturers.

Patricia Bullrich still has time to accidently step into an open manhole, and make Argentina a more civilized country.

[sandensea]

2. As much as Frau Bullrich drinks, that's a distinct possibility

In all seriousness, what I do hope is that she faces trial for this murder and for divulging the name of a man under witness protection - as well as for the 43 Gendarmerie officers that perished two years ago after she sent them on an illegal political mission.

Of course, it's unlikely given Argentina's largely Opus Dei-aligned judiciary.

When Macri named her Security Minister, it told me all I really needed to know about the tone of his administration.

Thanks as always for your thoughts, Judi.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Cristina Fernandez: Maldonado Case is the Most Grave Facing Argentine Government

Published 30 August 2017



Published 30 August 2017

Maldonado was last seen on August 1 at an Indigenous protest in the south of the country which was suppressed by the police.

Argentina's former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner says the case of the missing activist Santiago Maldonado is the most serious facing the government.

During a campaign speech in La Plata, Fernandez held up a photograph of the young man who disappeared a month ago.

Maldonado was last seen on August 1 at an Indigenous protest in the south of the country which was suppressed by the police.

More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cristina-Fernandez-Maldonado-Case-is-the-Most-Grave-Facing-Argentine-Government-20170830-0035.html