Ten Months After Maldonado’s Death, Family Still Seeks Justice in Argentina

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Ten months after an Argentinian man was found dead, his family is still seeking justice and answers.

According to Página/12 of Buenos Aires, Santiago Maldonado, a 28-year-old tattoo artist, had joined a road blockade protest on August 1, 2017. Security forces had evicted members of the Pu L community of indigenous Mapuche people from ancestral territory, and the protest that Maldonado had joined was in solidarity with the Pu Lof Mapuche. The Gendarmerie, a federal security force, intervened to disperse the protest. On October 20 of that year, his family identified his body after it had been found and retrieved from the Chubut River, located in the south of the country near the site of the protest.

The Maldonado family is still in legal pursuit of answers regarding the circumstances of Santiago’s disappearance and death. The family is presenting a new legal complaint regarding the illegal spying to which they were subjected when Santiago was still missing. The family is also planning demonstrations and other efforts of mobilization. One family member remarked that they are marching for “the memory” of Santiago, as well as for “truth and justice,” adding that “they are not just words” and that they “continue to generate more unity.”