Thousands protest for missing activist Santiago Maldonado

Tens of thousands of Argentine protesters held photos of Santiago Maldonado, an indigenous rights activist, who was last seen when border police evicted a group of indigenous Mapuche from lands in Patagonia owned by Italian clothing company Benetton.

Maldonado's disappearance has hit a raw nerve in Argentina, where human rights groups estimate that about 30,000 people died or were forcibly disappeared during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.

Maldonado's family says border police detained him when he and others were blocking a road in Chubut province, in the southern region of Patagonia.

Al Jazeera's Teresa Bo, reporting from Buenos Aires, said that those present at Friday's protest were calling Maldonado's disappearance a "forced disappearance".

"There are witnesses that have said that he was taken alive and that's why they [thousands of protesters] are here today," Bo said.

UCJ, UNILORIN.