Mapuche referents requested a meeting with President Alberto Fernández “to evaluate the result of the dialogue table that he himself promoted” in order to resolve the conflict in Villa Mascardi.
In the note, they highlighted that eight months have passed since the eviction and more than 60 days since the last dialogue table in February in Bariloche. “Unilaterally, state institutions were postponing dates to today. Pu lamuen are still detained along with their children, the rest of the community continues in legal uncertainty and the rewe continues to be militarized to deny us the possibility of their care and protection, in a state of progressive deterioration”, they indicated.
Last Saturday, Orlando Carriqueo, a representative of the Mapuche Parliament of Río Negro, confirmed that a lawyer from the National Human Rights Secretariat had contacted them to announce that the dialogue table would be this Tuesday in Buenos Aires. Hours later, the INAI (National Institute for Indigenous Affairs) and the Ministry of Security told them that the meeting was suspended. For this reason, they decided to send a letter to Fernández.
In the note, they recalled that on December 12 of last year, the same president received the Mapuche entourage that recounted “the pain of seeing the rewe of the machi Betiana Coluan Nahuel militarized. As we told you on that occasion, the appearance of a machi in a community should have been a common and current event for our culture, however, it is not due to the attempted genocide carried out by the Argentine State.”
They also mentioned that Fernández instructed the Human Rights Secretariat to coordinate the dialogue table, formalized the appointment of the presidency of the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs -which until then remained headless-, established a schedule with the next meeting dates and ordered a new meeting at Casa Rosada to evaluate the result of the table, sixty days after that December 12which was never formalized.
“The subsequent meetings were unprecedented in the deal between the State and the Mapuche Tehuelche People. We were able to discuss and address each one of the topics with respect, tolerance and always trying that the differences of culture are not an impediment to discuss politically”, they raised.
They highlighted that, at the second meeting of the dialogue table, on February 10 in Bariloche, the restitution of the rewe was agreed and a next meeting on February 24 to sign the agreement.
“The development of this Dialogue Table had national and international repercussions, since, for the first time, the State would stop using the Penal Code to resolve a territorial conflict with indigenous peoples. It was a political and mature discussion that augured a promising end for the democratic coexistence between various political actors”, they concluded.
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