Human Rights Activists, Family Members Mark 8 Months of Maldonado's Forced Disappearance

Family members along with human rights groups commemorated eight months of the forced disappearance of the Argentine artisan and activist, Santiago Maldonado, on Sunday. 

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The commemorative event demanding justice for the 28-year-old missing artisan took place in Mar del Plata, a coastal Argentine city in the southeast part of Buenos Aires Province, where the human rights activists and members of his family will march from the San Martin monument to Almirante Brown square, where Sergio Maldonado, Santiago's brother, will give a press conference. The event will finally culminate with a music festival. 

Several human rights defenders also took to social media with the hashtag #JusticiaPorSantiagoMaldonado,

"To 8 months, since the XXV Congress of the @partidoobrero order #JusticiaPorSantiagoMaldonado. The Government of MACRI and Patricia Bullrich is responsible. No more repression and prosecution of those who fight," wrote an activist on Twitter. 

Maldonado was known to have been actively engaged in the fight for the rights of the Mapuche people in the region. 

According to witnesses, Santiago Maldonado was last seen during an Argentine military police eviction operation against the Pu Lof Mapuche community in the Chubut department of Cushamen on Aug. 1., when the police shoved the missing activist into a van and drove away. 

On Oct. 20, nearly three months later, the family members confirmed that a body found days before in the Chubut River, was that of the missing activist. The Maldonado family have insisted that he was forcibly disappeared by state police and are demanding clarity and justice in this case.