Justice determined that Santiago Maldonado had drowned in the river and had not been the victim of an enforced disappearance

Rawson Federal Judge Gustavo Lleral closed today the two cases relating to the disappearance of Santiago Maldonado, who died drowned in the Chubut River on August 1 of last year, according to the decision of 263 fojas, in which he also ordered the total and final dismissal of Constable Emmanuel Echazú.

The magistrate has not found any criminal responsibility in the actions of the gendarmerie which, on August 1, smothered a cut on the road 40, at the level of the ranch of Leleque, in which a group of Mapuches identified with the lonko Facundo Jones Huala attacked with stones to the federal force while demanding the release of his leader

In dictating the sentence and closing the habeas corpus file, the magistrate ordered to reinstate the reserved effects in the record and to file the case in the court of Esquel.

He did so after learning yesterday the latest expertise on the DNI of Santiago Maldonado who showed that no "objective evidence was found to indicate that this document had not been immersed in water for 90 days ". Lleral weighed the accumulation of evidence in the record and ruled that Maldonado was not the victim of enforced disappearance, but had drowned in the Chubut River..

It is taken for granted that the family will appeal the sentence and will go to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to review the case.

After 78 days of searching, the lifeless body of Santiago Maldonado, 28 years old, was found in the bed of the Chubut River, in the Lof de Resistencia de Cushamen, the Mapuche community that occupies part of the island. Estancia Leleque, belonging to the Benetton Group, Chubut.