Singers and activists in Argentina have created a song to demand that Santiago Maldonado, the 28-year-old activist who disappeared during a police raid on an Indigenous territory, return home alive.
German Maldonado, Santiago’s brother, is one of the main singers.
“Where is my brother, Santi? Tell us who took him away. If it was the police, then give him back,” the chorus goes.
“Where is my friend, Santi? Where is he? Where is he?”
Relatives of Maldonado allege Argentine police took him away on Aug. 1 during a protest in Cushamen.
“We’re still looking for you, everywhere, in every corner, but we all know that the police took you away,” the song’s bridge goes.
The song also refers to attacks against Indigenous people in Argentina, especially the Mapuche. Santiago was participating in a protest to demand that the government return their land, which was given to the multinational Benetton Group company.
“For these people to forget is like not breathing,” the song goes. “For the 30,000 and the original people massacred, they won’t stop, we will fight and succeed in your name, Santiago.”
Members of human rights organizations are also part of the song, like Taty Almeida, from the founding line of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who spent their lives looking for more than 30,000 people who disappeared during the country’s dictatorship in the 1970s.
“When we were healing for our history, they stab us in this wound that was healing.”
The group ends the song with shouts and crying as they repeatedly ask “Where are you, Santiago?”
