The case has revived memories of forced disappearances in the country – and become a rallying cry for President Mauricio Macri’s top opponent

The last time anyone saw Santiago Maldonado was on the banks of an icy Patagonian river, where he was reportedly surrendering to Argentinian border guards during a raid on a camp of indigenous protesters.

Officers from the Argentinian national gendarmarie attacked the encampment on 1 August, in an attempt dislodge a group of activists who had occupied part of an enormous swath of land owned by the clothing empire Benetton, but also claimed by the region’s Mapuche people.

Witnesses saw Maldonado flee to the side of the frozen Chubut river – then turn back and surrender to the baton-wielding officers.

Since that day, more than two months ago, the 28-year-old backpacker has not been seen or heard of.

His disappearance has dominated nightly TV news, prompted a string of angry street protests – and revived bitter memories of Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship, when 30,000 people were forcibly disappeared after being seized by security forces.

But it has also sparked a political firestorm before midterm elections on 22 October.

Photos of Maldonado’s bearded, handsome face have been reproduced endlessly on social media above the simple question: “Where is Santiago Maldonado?”

At a huge demonstration in Buenos Aires on Sunday, Maldonado’s brother Germán addressed the crowd flanked by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo – the human rights campaigners who braved the dictatorship in their battle for justice.

“What is happening with human rights in this society is shameful,” he said. “We are stepping backwards in time.”



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The disappearance has put pressure on the centre-right government of President Mauricio Macri, which has repeatedly tried to downplay the crimes of Argentina’s dictatorship.

The case has been adopted as a rallying cry by Macri’s main political opponent, the former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is competing for a senate seat in the October vote – and who is widely thought to be eyeing a return to the presidency in 2019.

But Maldonado, a fine arts graduate and tattoo artist, was not a political figure, a third brother, Sergio, told the Guardian. “My brother’s not an activist, he’s a nomad, he writes poetry,” he said.

Santiago and Sergio Maldonado. Photograph: Family Maldonado

Santiago spent the last seven years crisscrossing Argentina with little but a backpack, and arrived at the remote Mapuche camp at the end of July.

The landscape around Pu Lof is a heart-stopping, barren wilderness where the endless plains of the Patagonian steppe are framed by the majestic Andes mountains.

But the area has become the setting for a long-running dispute between Benetton, the Italian clothing retailer, which owns 2.2m acres of land, and the Mapuche indigenous people, who claim a small part of the territory as their own.

Argentinian security forces have repeatedly faced accusations of excessive force during clashes with the protesters, who have staged land invasions and blocked roads.

When gendarmes in riot gear attacked the Pu Lof protest camp on 1 August, the indigenous activists dived into the Chubut river to escape the officers, but Maldonado hesitated at the edge of its cold waters.

“My brother can’t swim so he probably thought, ‘I’m white, I haven’t done anything,’ and gave himself up,” said Sergio.

According to Mapuche witnesses, Maldonado was heard telling the officers: “Please stop hitting me, I already surrendered.” Since then, there has been no trace of him.

Rather than investigate the officers involved, Argentina’s security minister, Patricia Bullrich, at first tried to cast suspicion on the protesters, suggesting in congress that Maldonado had been knifed by a Mapuche activist.

In turn, Fernández has repeatedly criticised the government for its handling of the case, accusing the government and sympathetic media of a cover-up.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Signs hang in Plaza de Mayo during a rally on the one-month anniversary of Maldonado’s disappearance. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Officials have said that the case is being investigated as a forced disappearance, but human rights activists are scathing in their assessment of the official response.



“The government did everything wrong,” said Mariela Belski, the head of Amnesty International in Argentina. “The gendarmes should never have been allowed to investigate the scene.”

José Miguel Vivanco, the executive director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that the Argentinian government should prioritize the investigation.

“When someone goes missing, no matter under which circumstances, time is of the essence. This is all the more important when the person may have been forcibly disappeared by security forces,” he wrote.

But the case has also been seized on by Argentina’s far right, who have drawn a parallel between the current struggle for the rights of indigenous people and the activities of the leftwing guerrilla groups that were crushed during the dictatorship.

Alfredo Astiz, a formal naval officer who is already serving a life sentence for crimes including the murder of two French nuns, shocked the country with a statement in court this week in which he described the Mapuche protesters as a “secessionist movement” seeking to carve up the country.

“The war against terrorism can’t be won. It is a war without time,” said Astiz, who is currently being tried on a string of charges related to other crimes committed at the notorious Esma naval unit, where about 5,000 dissidents were held and tortured.

Meanwhile, the Maldonado family has not received any phone call or public expression of concern from Macri or any other high-ranking government official, while the judicial investigation into his case has not produced any discernible leads.

“The mistreatment of the family by the government is astonishing,” said Belski, of Amnesty Argentina. “That doesn’t mean that the family hasn’t been used politically, but that is ultimately irrelevant. What we have here is a missing person who must be found.”