Possible body of missing activist found before Argentina’s midterm election

By: Emily Green
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Candidates in Argentina suspended their campaigns after a body was discovered in a river on Wednesday, October 18. Many believe it to be the missing activist, Santiago Maldonado, who was last seen close to that location.

A demonstration for Maldonado in Buenos Aires on Thursday. Image Courtesy of Marcos Brindicci/Reuters.

Maldonado disappeared in August during a protest for indigenous rights when the federal police force was called in to put down the rally. According to a witness, Maldonado was knocked unconscious by security forces and put into a car.

The remains were found about 1,500 meters from the community guard of the Indigenous Mapuche community in Pu Lof. The body was on the riverbed of the Chubut River.

An expert hired by Maldonado’s family reported that the clothing on the body matches the description found of Maldonado’s clothes from the day of his disappearance. Also, he claims to have found a document in one of the pockets with his name on it. Regardless, his family is not convinced and distrusts the government. They are staying by his body in anticipation of DNA identification. The autopsy will be carried out on Friday in Argentina’s capital.

However, many question this discovery. That area of the river had previously been checked by authorities three separate times, and they have no explanation as to why they found it on the fourth dredging of the river. Maldonado’s lawyer, Veronica Heredia, remarked “we do not understand … we have no physical or legal explanation of why that body was found yesterday.”

Additionally, several other circumstances have raised suspicions that the body was planted. The remains were found only 300 meters from where the protest occurred, and his family questions how Maldonado could have been found upstream from where he went missing.

On top of that, it was recovered only days before Argentina’s legislative election on Sunday. Major parties running in the mid-term congressional election suspended their campaigns as a result. There is tension and disagreement over who actually harmed Maldonado and which party’s campaign will suffer more. As a result of the discovery, an emergency survey revealed that 12% of voters have decided to change their vote.

As a known activist for the Mapuche people, Maldonado spoke out against the Italian fashion giant, Benetton. The company owns 2.2 million acres of land which the indigenous people claims as part of their ancestral land. There have been numerous protests over the forcible eviction of community members from their homes.

Maldonado’s disappearance is a grim reminder of the 1976-1983 dictatorship that ruled Argentina. During that time, around 30,000 young activists vanished after being taken into custody by security forces.

For more information, please see:

Sputnik – ‘Too Shady’: Body Thought to Be Missing Activist Found Ahead of Argentina Vote – 10 October 2017

Guardian – Body found in icy river could sway Argentina’s midterm elections – 19 October 2017

Herald Tribune – Argentines Wait To Learn If Body is That of Missing Activist – 19 October 2017

BBC News – BBC Minute: On Argentina’s missing activist – 19 October 2017

Telesur – Family of Missing Activist Santiago Maldonado: We Await Autopsy Results – 18 October 2017

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Watch the video above to learn how North Carolina was part of the U.S. rendition and torture program carried out in the years following 9/11.

 

The North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture is a citizen-driven, non-partisan truth commission established to investigate the state’s role in torture and to issue a report with findings and recommendations.  NCCIT is holding public hearings in Raleigh, NC on November 30 – December 1 to receive witness testimony.  The 11 commissioners will hear from legal experts, doctors, state officials and torture survivors.

 

We need your help to ensure the hearings are a success and have an impact beyond the state.  Financial support for the hearings will increase the reach and effectiveness by going toward:

 

  • High-quality international teleconferencing to bring the live testimony of those directly affected by U.S. torture into the hearing room.
  • Expanding the capacity of the commission by hiring outside counsel and investigators to research facts surrounding North Carolina’s involvement.
  • Airfares and lodging for prominent witnesses from the UK and other parts of the U.S.
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Visit www.nccit.org to learn more about the history of the issue and the Commission’s plans.

 

Thank you for your contribution.  It will enhance the work of the Commissioners as they encourage North Carolina to become a human rights leader going forward and ensure our state is never again used in a supply chain for torture.

NPR: State Department Reportedly Revokes Visa Of Magnitsky Act Campaigner

CEO of Hermitage Capital Management Ltd., William Browder speaking with The Associated Press in Davos, Switzerland in 2011.

Virginia Mayo/AP

The State Department has reportedly revoked a visa for British citizen Bill Browder, a hedge-fund manager-turned human-rights activist responsible for the Magnitsky Act. The 2012 U.S. law is aimed at punishing Russian officials believed responsible for the death in a Moscow prison of Sergei Magnitsky, who was allegedly beaten and denied medical care.

The cancelling of Browder’s visa came on the same day that the Kremlin issued yet another international arrest warrant for him via Interpol.

The Magnitsky Act, which freezes the assets and bans visas for certain Russians, including those close to Vladimir Putin “touched off a nasty confrontation with the Kremlin, and the two sides have been trying ever since to undermine the credibility of the other. Recently, however, Russian prosecutors have taken that effort to a remarkable new level, claiming that Mr. Magnitsky was actually murdered by Mr. Browder,” according to The New York Times.

Browder, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in July, was once the largest private foreign investor in Russia. Magnitsky was his accountant and attorney. You can hear him here in a July interview with NPR, with a thorough take here by NPR’s Miles Parks.

As NPR’s Greg Myre reported in July:

“The Magnitsky Act re-emerged has a front-burner topic … in connection with the investigations surrounding President Trump’s campaign and possible links to Russian meddling in last year’s presidential race.

Russia has lobbied hard for repeal of the act. That’s what Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya said she was doing when she met with Donald Trump Jr. in June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York.”

Euobserver writes that, as in the previous four “Red Notices” rejected by Interpol, the latest such notice exploits a loophole called a “diffusion notice.”

According to the websites:

“Interpol rejected them all on grounds that they were politically motivated, but Interpol member states can file diffusions without any oversight.

“The diffusions, which are circulated to all members, often stay in national police databases even if Interpol later deletes them from its central system.”

The latest move by Russia has angered defenders of Browder, including Michael McFaul, the ambassador to Russia under President Obama from 2012-2014.

McFaul tweeted “this is outrageous,” and called on President Trump and the State Department to “fix this now.”

McFaul’s concern was picked up by Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who was fired earlier this year by President Trump. Bharara “seconded” McFaul in the retweet, adding in a subsequent tweet that Russia’s allegation that Browder may have murdered Magnitsky is a “farce.”

CorrectionOct. 23, 2017

A previous headline for this story said the State Department had reportedly revoked a visit for Browder. It was a visa that was revoked.