On the morning of this Tuesday, March 24th, on the 50th anniversary of the Civic-Military-Ecclesiastical Coup, a symbolic and temporary plaque-mural was installed at Parallel 42 in the Andean Comarca, on the shores of National Route 40, as part of the Mural for the fight against State Repression and in Memory of Julio César Schwartz. A small ceremony was held, attended by former political prisoners, plastic artists, members of state guilds, a gathering of retirees, and human rights, social, and environmental organizations. In early 2017, different organizations from the Andean Comarca installed a mural on National Route 40 at Parallel 42, the border between the provinces of Río Negro and Chubut, since marches were held there on March 24th and it is a site close to where Julio César Schwartz was kidnapped on April 1st, 1978, at his home in Villa Turismo on the ascent of Los Maitenes on the slope of Cerro Piltriquitrón, who remains missing to this day. The mural restoration work has been going on for almost a year, as time and the weather contributed to its deterioration. This work involves the municipality of Lago Puelo declaring it of municipal interest, the logistics for its removal, the installation of a smaller one to preserve the site while funds are raised for its complete restitution. These tasks will continue this year and are in charge of the current assembly that supports them and requests economic collaboration to purchase materials for the new mural. At the event, some of the plastic artists who recovered the history and the interest in recovering the design of the removed mural were present. It converged the story of Schwartz, the Genocide of the Ancestral Mapuche Tehuelche Peoples, and the memory of the regional struggles, to which were added months later the disappearance followed by the death of Santiago Maldonado on August 1st and the shooting of Rafael Nahuel on November 25th by Federal Forces as subsequent victims in the face of the increase in repression and militarization in the region, such as Elías Garay Cañicol (killed in 2021), the political prisoner Facundo Jones Huala among many other criminalized and persecuted social fighters. Finally, the assembly in charge of the tasks invited those present to the activities of that same afternoon in the different localities that make up the Andean Comarca of Parallel 42 in their main squares that closed with a massive march in El Bolsón; where there will be another activity to close the week on Friday, March 27th at the Human Rights Plaza to continue remembering Julio César Schwartz on the 48th anniversary of his disappearance, an activity that will be attended by his son, Germán Schwartz, a member of H.I.J.O.S. The former political prisoners, for their part, told part of their stories, remembered missing comrades and partners, reflected on the consequences of their absence, and recovered their ideals of revolution for a more just society. In an open round, the absence of local press media and the silence of municipal and provincial organisms that invite to the activities set for the day of the 50 years of the 1976 Coup, marked as the National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice, was also commented on. Bariloche.
