Leaders and representatives of the Original Peoples asked the national government to intervene in the Villa Mascardi conflict, in Río Negro, to protect “the people who make up the Lafken Winkul Mapu community” and other communities in the area. The order went through a urgent letter addressed to the president Alberto Fernandez and some ministers, before the call of residents supported by deputies of Together for Change (JxC) to a banner in the area. They also requested a hearing to present their claims and proposals.
“We come by this means to request that you arbitrate the necessary means to the protection of people that make up the community Lafken Winkul Mapuother Mapuche Tehuelche communities and families of the Andean region”, the indigenous representatives pointed out in the letter addressed to President Fernández and the Ministers of the Interior, Eduardo de Pedro, of Security, Aníbal Fernández, to the Minister of Gender and Diversity, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta and the Secretary of Human Rights, Horacio Pietragalla. “There will be a march that aims to reach Villa Mascardi, summoned from sectors with clear violent, racist and xenophobic ideological positions“, they added expressing their concern.
The letter paid off and the caravan of nearly a hundred vehicles was stopped by the Río Negro police about twenty kilometers from the area where the Mapuche peoples maintain a seizure of land they claim. The president of the Pro, Patricia Bullrich, participated in the mobilization, one of the leaders of the political party of former president Mauricio Macri that directly confronts the claims of the original peoples.
The letter was sent by the spokesman for the Coordinator of the Parliament of the Mapuche-Tehuelche People of Río Negro, Orlando Carriqueo, and the head of the Council for the Development of Indigenous Communities, Newen Loncoman. In the document they warned thatand the organizers of the caravan “are known for their expressions of hate towards the Mapuche people, and even on more than one occasion have called or incited physical attack against people from different communities”. In turn, they added that those who made the call “have acknowledged in the media the intention to harm the community,” and affirmed that “National Deputy Waldo Wolff, provincial legislator Juan Martin, and well-known social agitators They have published a video of the call.
The indigenous referents were waiting for a response from President Fernández and his ministers to the request for a hearing to discuss the conflict.