ARGENTINA
25 year-old cartoonist abducted, beaten, intimidated (1996)
In early 1996, political satirist Cristian (Nik) Dzwonik
was abducted from outside of his home, stuffed into a car, and hit with
a pistol on the head. He was told to "stop messing around and behave"
himself. The two abductors took his money and left him alongside a freeway
in the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Argentine President Carlos Menem used to wear a hairpiece,
which many cartoonists loved to portray as a cat. When the president did
away with the toupee, Nik kept the animal as the narrator of his cartoons.
Nik does not know who his abductors were. He had been regularly criticizing
President Carlos Menem, who seemed not to care about the ridicules,
and who, at one point, even started asking the artist for his originals.
Tomas Sanz, head of the satirical monthly Humor, whose publication
had been sued numerous times by public officials in the 1980s and 90s, has
said that Manem seemed to have decided that "if you can't beat them,
join them." In light of the abduction, however, Nik's mixed treatment
had not put the minds of the Argentine political cartoonists at ease.
Political cartoonist murdered (1970s)
During the 1970s, political cartoonist Hector Oesterheld regularly
portrayed members of the Argentine military junta as extraterrestrials.
The artist soon exceeded the subjects' limit of tolerance; he was kidnapped
and murdered along with his two daughters.
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