The Chief of Staff Pablo Zúcaro assured that the provincial government did not participate in the dialogue table that took place yesterday between representatives of the Mapuche people and authorities of the national government in the exEsma building in Buenos Aires because “they were not invited”.
“We received an invitation to participate the night before the meeting. So that we were oblivious to the whole process”, he assured in relation to the controversial meeting in which the national government guaranteed the return of the rewe (sacred site) in Villa Mascardi, the construction of three houses for the machi, her collaborators and patients, and the delivery of land for the rest from the Lafken Winkul Mapu community.
“We had no contact. The same day of the meeting, around 11 o’clock, the superintendent of National Parks called to see if someone from the provincial government would participate. We explained to them that we had not received the invitation, but that As the subject concerned us, we were willing to participate by zoom. They never sent us the linkZúcaro warned.
Regarding the commitment to deliver public land to the Mapuche community, Zúcaro considered that “there are laws and clearly, this would not be the procedure”.
The provincial official also referred to the criticism by Orlando Carriqueo, from the Mapuche Parliament of Río Negro, regarding an offer of land by the provincial government at the meeting that, he considered, “they are neither suitable nor sufficient”.
“The only thing that happened was a query from National Parks to the director of Lands to find out if the province had 10 hectares somewhere close to a school or populated center. But there aren’t that many lands that cover those characteristics. The remnants of land are in faraway places. In any case, the conflict is on Nation lands, so the cession would correspond to the Nation”, he said.
Regarding the definitions of the dialogue table, Zúcaro considered that the proposals will not resolve the conflict. “There is no possibility of non-conflict if the rewe stays in one place and the rest of the community moves to another place. We would be interested in contributing to that pacification by ceding land for the entire community,” he said.