Mapuche: Returning to Land
Below is an article published by Inter Press Service News Agency:
Mapuche Indians in the southern Argentine region of
"This is not a protest, nor is it a clandestine action. We don't intend to be owners, but rather to live as a community in our territory," Mauro Millán told Tierramérica. He was acting as spokesman for the 25 Mapuches who since Feb. 14 have occupied the
There are six families building homes there, near the site from which they were expelled five years ago.
In one section of the ranch, Benetton opened the
The attorney general's office in Esquel, the closest city, last week filed a claim of misappropriation. But spokespersons from the firm told Tierramérica it was a government claim. The company has not yet determined a legal course, because it considered the case closed.
The new community says the territory belongs to them since before the CTSA was created and that the seizure comes from that period. "This for us is a return to a common territory of the Mapuches. There are old cemeteries of ours there," said Millán.
"Since our land was usurped, the landowners have enjoyed impunity, protection of private property. Is the snow private? Is the wind, is the river private?" asks a proclamation signed by the Mapuches, who say they will never give up this land.
The CTSA company was founded in 1889 when the Argentine government ceded land to 10 British citizens, with 90,000 hectares going to each one, bypassing the Mapuche communities who lived there, and who ended up as labourers on the new ranches, Leleque among them.
"From the world view of the Mapuche they have rights. The problem is that the land was divided more than a century ago amongst individuals. In other words, it's not government land," Gonzalo Sánchez, author of the book "La Patagonia Vendida" (Patagonia for
With the purchase of CTSA, Benetton then had 970,000 hectares in Patagonia, and is the top private landowners in
But the company, which used the land for forestry, denounced the invasion, and the police violently removed the Mapuches, destroying their humble home and their crops, and dispersing their livestock.
The Indians faced criminal charges for misappropriation and a civil case arising from the land conflict. In the legal process the judge ruled lack of blame for the accused, but on the civil side resolved that the land belonged to Benetton.
"Every time they bring native peoples like us into the supposed legal context it's to our detriment, but we have arguments to support us," said Millán.
Since the expulsion, actions took Curiñanco and Nahuelquir to
Months later, Benetton offered the
"The
Curiñanco and Nahuelquir are back, with other families from their community, camping on the land they believe was their ancestors'.
Benetton offered to make a donation. "But neither is it our responsibility to recognise ancestral rights over lands acquired from a private company," said the spokesperson.
According to Millán, "the donation was to clean up Benetton's image, but they never proposed anything to us directly. Piedra Parada is rich in archaeological sites, a wonderful and fertile place, but it only ended up expanding the company's immense holdings."
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