Image: Moni Soria/WIkimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Santiago Maldonado disappeared during a raid by the Argentine Gendarmerie (the military border police) on August 1st, 2017. Maldonado is a tattoo artist who has travelled around the country, participating in diverse community projects and movements. On August 1st, he had been participating in a partial roadblock outside the Pu Lof en Resistencia Departamento Cushamen (the Lof Cushamen) in Chubut province, Argentina. That roadblock had been set up as part of the organising to free the Mapuche political prisoner Facundo Jones Huala, who in late June had been re-arrested and jailed on charges of a dubious nature.
On August 1st, at the orders of federal judge Guido Otranto, the Gendarmerie launched yet another violent raid on the Lof, ostensibly to lift the roadblock. The Gendarmerie, however, moved well beyond the roadblock and into the community’s land. Witnesses stated that Maldonado did not manage to cross the river as he tried to escape the police who were firing both live ammunition and rubber bullets. They reported that he was caught by them, beaten and then forced into a military van. He has not been heard of since. The gendarmes, together with the provincial and federal governments, have consistently denied any knowledge of his whereabouts. They do so in the face of abundant evidence indicating that Maldonado remains, whether alive or not, in their hands.
