Former president and now senate candidate Cristina Fernández de Kirchner also suspended campaigning, along with other major figures vying for Congress, their campaigns said. In the final week of campaigning the Maldonado case has overshadowed the congressional election, which is expected to give Macri’s coalition additional seats but not a majority in either chamber. Some opposition and rights groups believe state security forces took Maldonado, a 28-year-old craftsman, and allege Macri’s government covered up information on his whereabouts. Macri’s government has said that there is no evidence that shows security forces detained Maldonado. Potential cases of abuse by security forces are sensitive in Argentina, where the 1976-1983 military dictatorship secretly detained, tortured and killed people in clandestine prisons.

Source: The Guardian October 18, 2017 16:33 UTC