Where is Santiago Maldonado? Conflicts about the memory of the recent past in Argentina

Abstract

Santiago Maldonado disappeared on August 1, 2017, in Cushamen, Chubut, when the National Gendarmerie repressed the protest of the Mapuche community in which Maldonado participated. The Argentine south has a long experience of claims of the Mapuche people focused on recovering the lands they consider ancestral, achieving jurisdictional autonomy and the recognition of economic - productive freedom and their cultural identity. On August 1, the Gendarmerie entered the Pu Lof in Cushamen Resistance since the Puel Mapu Autonomous Movement had cut Route 40 for 24 hours to demand the release of its leader Facundo Jones Huala, arrested a month earlier in the province from Rio Negro. The National Gendarmerie had received an order from federal justice to clear Route 40, but once it was completed, it also entered the community illegally. The disappearance of Santiago Maldonado was reported immediately by the community, and then became the central complaint of Human Rights organizations and various political organizations. Maldonado was missing for 78 days until the discovery of his body, submerged in the Chubut River, during a search made by the divers of the Prefecture made, upstream with respect to the place of repression. The social, political, legal and media mobilization that occurred during the time that Maldonado was missing reflected how Argentina's Recent History remains open, the presence of the past in the present and the social and political disputes that arise from it became evident. More precisely, the contradictory positions on what happened during the last military dictatorship in Argentina and the violation of human rights through forced disappearance and state terrorism. In this context, and understanding that the media are a key tool in the struggles for memory, the objective of this work is to analyze the presentation of the disappearance and death of Santiago Maldonado in the Argentine newspapers. What meanings does that conceptualization have?, What conflicts about the recent Argentine past made visible?, and What positions were tried to legitimize with its public use ?. To answer these questions, the newspapers La Nación and Pagina 12 show the existence of conflicts over the senses of the past that fought for the meaning of the disappearance and death of Santiago Maldonado. These newspapers do not exhaust the lines of analysis of the case but constitute massive publications aimed at profiles of different readers where memory disputes can be traced. The focus of analysis will be on the months of the disappearance and death of Santiago Maldonado to reflect the existence of a struggle for the senses of the past that struggled to attribute different meanings to the fate of the young man.