Three years after the alleged forced disappearance of Argentinian activist Santiago Maldonado, the Benetton family continues to violate indigenous rights in Patagonia.
On August 1, 2017, the Argentinian activist Santiago Maldonado disappeared while protesting in defence of Mapuche indigenous rights on land owned by the Italian fashion company Benetton in the Chubut region of Patagonia. Following public outrage over the alleged involvement of security forces in his disappearance, Maldonado鈥檚 body was finally found on October 17, in a river close to where he had last been seen.
An ruled that the cause of the activist鈥檚 death was 鈥渄rowning and hypothermia鈥 and the case was closed in late 2018. However, forensic expert subsequently declared it impossible that Maldonado鈥檚 corpse had spent 78 days in the river and that it must have been placed there, sometime between a few hours and ten days before it was discovered.
Prueger pointed out the unlikelihood that Maldonado had drowned in water only 30 centimetres deep, while pollen found on his clothes should have dissipated after an extended period submerged. Moreover, how was it possible that divers had searched that stretch of river seven times and not seen the body?
In 2019, multiple complaints, including from Argentina鈥檚 Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH) and Maldonado鈥檚 family, contested the original autopsy ruling. In September 2019, the Federal Court of Appeal established that Maldonado died a violent death due to the actions of the National Gendarmerie of Argentina (GNA). Maldonado鈥檚 family and the APDH argued that the crimes included aggravated homicide by security forces and forced disappearance followed by death.
On August 3, the Alberto Fern谩ndez government, which took office in December 2019, accused several high-ranking officials in the preceding Mauricio Macri administration (2015鈥2019) of responsibility in Maldonado鈥檚 death. Those accused are former cabinet chief of the Ministry of Security, Pablo Nocetti, former national director of the Gendarmerie, Gerardo Otero, and Otero鈥檚 second-in-command, Ernesto Oscar Robino.
The accusations allege that the Macri government of political opponents through illegal spying, the interference of intelligence services in the federal justice system and arbitrary detentions. Although Maldonado is not the only victim of state repression in democratic times in Argentina, his case is emblematic as it sheds light on the prioritisation of international profit over human rights, as well as corruption and authoritarianism under the Macri administration.
Beyond Santiago: Mapuche rights vs Benetton money
Maldonado disappeared in 2017 while demanding the return of ancestral Mapuche land, but the movement dates back to 2002 when the Benetton family 鈥 which bought the land in 1991 鈥 displaced the indigenous community living there.
The evicted Mapuche started a process of recuperation, arguing that , as sustained by the Argentinian Constitution. This recognises the ethnic and cultural pre-existence of indigenous people and the possession and communitarian property of their traditional territories. Furthermore, the Benetton family was violating international law, such as the . By depriving Mapuche communities of economic subsistence, Benetton was also violating International Labour Organisation legislation regarding indigenous communities.
The Mapuche are indigenous inhabitants of Wallmapu, the name given to their ancestral lands located across the region that today forms southern Chile and Argentina. After the two countries achieved independence in the early 19th century, national governments launched state expansion projects that persecuted and displaced indigenous people from their ancestral lands 鈥 or wiped them out altogether.
Today, these territories are controlled by multinational companies for extractive megaprojects, industrial farming and timber production, generating serious tensions with the Mapuche population.
Within this context, the right-wing Macri government criminalised Mapuche people by defining them as an internal enemy and . Further, the Benetton family hired the international press agency Jeffrey Group to carry out a demonising the Mapuche struggle by linking it to anarchists and international terrorism. , the Mapuche community occupying the lands that Benetton claims to own suffered violent repression from security forces.
The Benetton family owns the clothing chain , which has more than 5000 stores in 120 countries and defines itself as 鈥渁 responsible group that plans for the future and lives in the present, with a watchful eye to the environment, to human dignity, and a society in transformation鈥.
With in Patagonia, Benetton is also the biggest landowner in Argentina. The Italian company is involved in the forestation of pine trees 鈥 and the development of transgenic varieties 鈥 as well as in mega-mining and agrotoxins, which have both caused in southern Argentina. Benetton鈥檚 stock includes monocultures of soya in Buenos Aires province, monocultures of pine trees in Patagonia and five metalliferous mining megaprojects.
Under Macri, Benetton colluded with the Argentinian state, as it provided the Gendarmerie with cars and helicopters, among other favours. While three years have passed since the disappearance of Maldonado, and the case remains in impunity, Benetton continues violating human rights in Patagonia. In February, , leaving the Mapuche community of Nehuentuain Inchi帽 isolated without food or paraffin.
The Mapuche struggle demands the right to practise ancestral culture and respect for their heritage, including access to land, rather than see it exploited in the name of profit. They and their supporters will be hoping that, under the progressive Alberto Fern谩ndez government, they can engage in dialogue and increase their participation in decision-making regarding their territory.
[Reprinted from .]