Argentina: Family of missing activist Santiago Maldonado says ‘we await autopsy results’

October 20, 2017
Issue 
Santiago Maldonado disappeared on August 1 in Pu Lof shortly after he was arrested during a demonstration in support of Argentina’s Indigenous Mapuche community.

Veronica Heredia, the lawyer representing missing activist Santiago Maldonado's family, has said they will wait for the autopsy results of the body found on October 17 in the Chubut River, in Argentina.

"We have to have the autopsy result, then we'll see the other tests," Heredia told a news conference.

The remains were caught in the branches of willow trees on the river, about 1500 metres from the Indigenous Mapuche community in Pu Lof, near Esquel.

Heredia questioned the discovery of the body, during the fourth dredging of the river, saying: "We have no explanation of why the other results were negative and this is positive."

Sergio Maldonado, the brother of the missing activist, also questioned how the body was found upstream, in a previously checked area, where a corpse could easily have been previously found.

"We've gone through these places and we did not see that body ... we want the truth,” he said.

He tweeted that he thought the remains could have been planted there.

The body was found quite close to where Maldonado was last seen.

The 28-year-old disappeared on August 1 in Pu Lof shortly after he was arrested during a demonstration in support of Argentina’s Indigenous Mapuche community.

According to witnesses, the rally was interrupted by the federal border force. One participant and community member, Matias Santana, claimed to have seen officers force Maldonado into a vehicle after knocking him unconscious.

[Abridged from TeleSUR English.]

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