Text with 128 signatory organisations and communities
(among them A Planeta)
Photo: argentina.indymedia.org
(Euskara) (Castellano)
To the Supreme Court of Justice of the Argentine Nation
To the Governors, Legislatures and Courts of Justice of Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Formosa, Chaco, Catamarca, Santiago del Estero, Corrientes, Misiones, La Rioja, Córdoba, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, San Juan, Mendoza, San Luis, La Pampa, Buenos Aires, Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego.
(With copy to O.I.T., UN, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, O.E.A and CEPAL).
From the Socio-environmental, Human Rights and Indigenous Communities Organisations from all over Argentina we address you and firmly express that it is time that the national, provincial and municipal Argentinean State in the three powers and all its institutions effectively recognise the pre-existence and respect the rights of the Indigenous Peoples that pre-existed the Argentinean State, ancestral inhabitants of what today is called Argentina.
This ethnic and cultural pre-existence of the Argentinean Indigenous Peoples has been recognised in the Argentinean National Constitution in article 75, paragraph 17, since 1994.
Those PRE-EXISTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES that the genocidal conquest devastated and that the official history made invisible for centuries are : the Tastil, Lules, Atacama, Yojwis, Weenhayek, Kolla, Diaguita, Wichí, Chorote, Chané, Chulupí, Guaraní, Toba, Tapiete, Comechingón, Chicha, Charrúa, Guaycuru, Huarpe, Mapuche, Mpqoit, Mby’a Guaraní, Ocloya, Omaguaca, Avipón, Yamanas, Yaganes, Quechua, Pilagá, Q’om, Querandí, Rankulche, Selk’nam, Tonokoté, Tilián, Tilcara, Vilela, Sanavirón, Nivaclé, Tehuelche, among others.
There are no INDIGENOUS PEOPLES who are usurpers of land. They pre-exist the States, they are the ancestral owners of the entire Argentine territory.
On the contrary, it is the National, Provincial and Municipal States that were formed and settled on the genocide of the Original Indigenous Peoples. It is these States that must account for the genocide and plundering of the Indigenous Peoples.
However, the facts show that for the genocidaires the conquest of 1492 by blood and fire was not enough, nor the so-called Conquest of the Desert commanded by Julio Argentino Roca (which was never a desert, but populated by Indigenous Communities), nor the massacres of indigenous people in the four corners of the world, the genocidaires who divided up the indigenous lands and who formed the agro-livestock oligarchy continue to attack the Indigenous Peoples.
As is the case with the Wichi people of Salta, cornered by deforestation, genetically modified soya, dispossession of their lands, their rivers, and now, as a consequence of thousands of hectares of deforested land, flooded by the rising waters of the Pilcomayo and Bermejo Rivers, abandoned by the States, condemned to die slowly without drinking water or food. Genocide.
These days, those same people who made their wealth by taking indigenous lands, are the ones who sign bills and eviction sentences against all the Indigenous Communities in the country. They want more, they want EVERYTHING. The genocide continues, now institutional.
In this way, the Provincial States are ordering evictions of Indigenous Peoples, Communities and Communards, violating their rights enshrined in the Argentine National Constitution, Provincial Constitutions, Convention 169 of the International Labour Organisation on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries ratified by Law No. 24. 071 of 1992, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the American Convention on Human Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Optional Protocol; the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the Escazu Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean ratified by Argentina on 22/01/2021.
Examples of such current violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights committed by Provincial States are:
A.- Diaguita Indigenous Community of Valle de Tafí, province of Tucumán: In the area of Los Grateos, five families of the Indigenous Community of Valle de Tafí, which has legal status, were ordered by the Provincial Water Directorate (DPA) to vacate their homes within ten days. The Indigenous Community inhabits the territory publicly and peacefully, with legal status and a completed land survey. However, the provincial state of Tucumán is violating their constitutional rights by ordering the dispossession of their lands.
Contact: Alejo Azar Cacique de Comunidad Diaguita del Valle de Tafí, mobile phone 54 9 381 5902455
B.- INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY DIAGUITA CALCHAQUI INDIO COLALAO – TUCUMÁN : The Indigenous Community Indio Colalao, belonging to the Diaguita Calchaquí People and located in the locality of San Pedro de Colalao, department of Trancas, province of Tucumán, publicly denounces the serious situation of violence and intimidation they are going through, as a result of the illegitimate occupation of their ancestral territory by people outside the community.
The community members suffer constant threats, shooting at all hours and attacks that endanger their lives, their homes and have already injured their animals, for which reason the community has already filed the corresponding complaints with the police authorities. Indigenous territory is a space for life and culture, not for violence or usurpation. The Indio Colalao community demands:
- The immediate removal of the armed people occupying their territory.
- The protection of indigenous families and their animals.
- The full restitution of their ancestral territory.
- The respect and fulfilment of the constitutional and international rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Contact: Pedro Chávez Cacique Comunidad Diaguita Calchaqui Indio Colalao, mobile 54 93814063276
C.- Kolla Cueva del Inca Community of Tilcara, Jujuy province: In Case N° C-100406/2017 ‘Cruz Simona Natividad y Vazquez Carlos Gustavo por Hotel Canto del viento c/Mamaní, Javier Alejandro de la Comunidad Indígena Kolla Cueva del Inca’ of the 1st Instance Court N° 7, Judge Dr. Liz Valdecantos Bernal has ordered the eviction of the indigenous community without respecting their ancestral existence in the place. The Indigenous Community has legal status and the Sarahuaico archaeological site is located on its territory. Therefore, the eviction order violates the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the law 25743 on the Protection of archaeological and cultural heritage.
Contact : Miriam Alfaro President of the Kolla Cueva del Inca Community of Tilcara, Jujuy,
mobile phone 54 9 388 5124879
D.- Indigenous Community Quintriqueo Lof Kinxikew of Villa La Angostura, Neuquén : For 14 years the Indigenous Mapuche Communities Quintriqueo Lof Kinxikew and Lof Melo Community of Villa La Angostura, who share ancestral territory and who, as guardians of nature, are part of the Intercultural Management Council of the Nahuel Huapi National Park, have been harassed by the government of Neuquén to evict them from their territory.
Civil judge Francisco Astoul Bonorino ordered the eviction of the Quintriqueo Community from pasture lot 42, in the Bahía Huemul area of the Patagonian tourist corridor without waiting for the Court of Justice to resolve issues raised by the Indigenous Community.
This court ruling is one of many in which the State of Neuquén renews the violation of the rights of the Mapuche Peoples by denying their existence and their belonging to this Argentinean land, continuing the Spanish Conquest and the Desert Campaign ordered centuries ago by the national State and carried out by Julio Argentino Roca.
Contact : For Community Quintriqueo Lof Kinxikew: Logko Segundo Quintriqueo – Werken
Ricardo Quintriqueo, phone 2942 15406776
For Confederación Mapuche de Neuquén: Florentino Nahuel – José Quintriqueo
Contact mobile +5492994199443
For all these reasons, from the Socio-environmental and Human Rights Organisations and Indigenous Communities from all over Argentina, we demand that the rights to life, physical, spiritual and cultural integrity and territories of the INDIGENOUS PEOPLES PRE-EXISTING TO THE STATE be respected, as they were and continue to be the first victims of human rights violations perpetrated by public officials or private entities. Their right to the territory where their ancestors were born, lived and are buried predates any State and any formal property title instituted by States constituted on the dispossession of Pre-Existing Peoples.
To continue to violate the rights of Pre-existing Peoples constitutes State Terrorism and therefore Crimes against Humanity, to this we say NEVER AGAIN!
WE SIGN FOR NO MORE DISPOSSESSION OF PRE-EXISTING INDIGENOUS PEOPLES! :
1.-Afuera Mekorot
2.-Lucina Álvarez Teachers’ Group in the Multicolour of La Matanza
3.-Agrupación Ambiental Alerta Roja (Red Alert Environmental Group)
4.-Asamblea Antimegaminería Bariloche (Bariloche Anti-mining Assembly)
5.-Asamblea de Autoconvocados por el Chubutazo (Assembly of Self-Convened People for the Chubutazo)
6.-Asamblea de Las Heras por el Agua Pura de Mendoza (Las Heras Assembly for the Pure Water of Mendoza)
7.- Assembly of Necessity and Urgency
8.-Asamblea de Vecinos Autoconvocados de Viedma y Carmen de Patagones (Assembly of Self-convened Neighbours of Viedma and Carmen de Patagones)
9.- Assembly of Rawson Playa Neighbours
Mar Libre de Petroleras Assembly
Assembly for the Water and the Territory of HuaHuel Niyeo
12.- Assembly No to the Esquel Mine
13.-Assembly for No to the Mine and in Defence of Water – Corcovado
14.-Asamblea por el Agua y la Tierra Fiske Menuco (Fiske Menuco)
15.-Asamblea Paravachasca – Cordoba
16.-Asamblea Permanente del Comahue por el Agua – Allen
17.-Permanent Assembly of Comahue for Water – Neuquén
18.-Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH)
19.-Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH) – Northwest of Chubut
20.-Asamblea Popular por el Agua – Gran Mendoza
21.-Asamblea por el Agua Comodoro Rivadavia (Assembly for Water Comodoro Rivadavia)
22.- por el Agua y los Bienes Comunes – Luján de Cuyo – Mendoza
23.-Asamblea por la Tierra y el Agua – Las Grutas
24.-Asamblea Por El Monte Salsipuedes – Cordoba
25.-Socio-environmental Assembly – Baradero
26.-Socio-environmental Assembly El Trapiche – San Luis
27.-Asamblea Traslasierra Sur
28.-Ensenada-La Plata Environment in Struggle
29.-Environment in Struggle – Socialist Left
30.-Asociación del Cielo a la Tierra (Heaven to Earth Association)
31.-Árbol de Pié – Bariloche
32.-Basta de Fumigarnos Necochea (Stop Fumigating Us Necochea)
33.-Chiguanca Forestry Brigade – Traslasierra South
34.-Córdoba Campus of the Right Livelihood College (RLC)
35.-Cátedra Abierta de Pueblos Originarios UNPSJB Trelew
36.-Palestine Cause Necochea Quequén
37.-CLAMA – Clean Skies America Environmental Monitor – San Luis
38.-Colectivo de Trabajadores por la Ventana (teachers from Entre Ríos)
39.-Colectivo Pan y Caramelo – Punilla – Córdoba
40.-Commission of ‘Intercultural Work with Indigenous, Afro and Migrant Peoples’ of the
LIMSyC-FTS-UNLP 41.
41.-Community Inan Kume Rupu
42.-Community Isqon Quilla 9 Lunas – South Punilla
43.-Mapuche Epu Lafquen de Los Toldos Community – Buenos Aires
44.-Community Sikiman – South Punilla
45.-Cooperativa de Trabajo Nativa (Native Worker Cooperative)
Coordinadora Migrante /Consejería para Migrantes of LIMSYC-FTS-UNLP
47.-Coordinadora Plurinacional Basta de Falsas Soluciones (Plurinational Coordinating Committee Enough of False Solutions)
48.-Socio-environmental Coordinating Committee of Bahía Blanca
49.-CTA – Bahía Blanca
El Chaltén – El Bosque No Se Toca El Chaltén
51.-Elena Elgart – DNI: 27.848.135 – Puerto Madryn
52.-En Clave Roja
53.-Argentinean Federation of Speleology – Malargüe
54.-FM Alas 89.1 Community Radio
55.-FM Las Chacras Community Radio – Traslasierra-Córdoba
56.- Traslasierra Environmental Forum
57.- Environmental and Social Forum of Patagonia – FASP
58.- Forum for the Recovery of the Paraná River
59.-Mendoza Socio-Environmental Forum
60.-Women’s Front for Trelew
61.-Fundación para la defensa del ambiente (FUNAM), NGO in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC).
62.-Iván Marín, journalist from Prosa Urgente
Las Catas – Grupa Transfeminista Traslasierra Sur (Transfeminist Group Traslasierra South)
64.-Lof Newentuaiñ de Rawson
65.-Lof Newentuaiñ Inchin Costa of Lepa
66.-Lumaltik Herriak – Basque Country
67.-Movimiento Alternativa from Argentina
68.-Movimiento Antinuclear del Chubut (MACH)
69.-Movimiento Político Ecológico De Raíz (Political Ecological Movement Of Root)
70.-Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores en el FIT-U Chubut (Socialist Movement of the Workers in the FIT-U Chubut)
71.-Multisectorial Comarca Marítima Viedma – Patagones – El Condor
72.-Not a tree less, Ensenada
73.-Noelia Silva – DNI 29983578 – Autoconvocados por el Chubutazo
74.-Organization A Planeta – Basque Country
75.-Organisation Kume Rakizuam Compuche
76.-Organización Territorial KAMI Henen (Pueblos Chelkos- Kami – Kamichingon / Sanavirón / Ranqül / Ranqül)
Sanavirón / Ranqülche) – Córdoba
77.-Agruapación Pan y Rosas (Bread and Roses Group)
78.-Partido Obrero
79.-Prof. Dr. Raul Montenegro, 2004 Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood Award)
80.- Radio Programme Humanidad ¿Adónde vas?
81.-PTS in the IUF
82.-Raúl Quirino – Autoconvocados Campana – Assembly of Paraná
83.-Red de Luchas Socioambientales de Salta (Network of Socio-environmental Struggles of Salta)
84.-Union of Unemployed Workers of Mosconi, province of Salta.
85.- Lules Indigenous Community of Finca Las Costas, Salta province.
86.- Guaraní Community of Estación Tabacal de Hipólito Yrigoyen, province of Salta.
87.- Kolla El Desierto Community of San Antonio de los Cobres, province of Salta.
Network for the Defence of Human Rights in Salta.
89.-Hijos en la Red por la Defensa de DDHH Salta
90.-Ecosocialist Network Chubut
91.-Jarilla Network of Healthy Plants of Patagonia
92.-S.E R – Sociedad Ecológica Regional – Comarca Andina (Regional Ecological Society – Andean Shire)
93.-SERPAJ – Servicio Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice Service)
94.-Tejidos de Profesionales Indígenas en Argentina (Indigenous Professionals in Argentina)
95 .- Agrupación Tribuna Ambiental
96.-Union of Assemblies of Chubutense Communities – UACCH
97.-Union of Assemblies of Communities – Trelew
98.-VACHUG Vecinas Autoconvocadas por el Humedal Urbano Génova – Berisso
99.-Vecinos Autoconvocados de la Cuenca del Río Juramento – Salta
100.-Vecinos Contaminados Berisso, Ensenada, La Plata
101.-Vientos del Pueblo (Frente Popular Darío Santillán Corriente Plurinacional)
102.-Ecosocialist Network Salta
103.- NO TO THE MINE -ESQUEL
104.- Assembly of Las Heras por el Agua Pura of Mendoza
105.- Asamblea por Necesidad y Urgencia de Mendoza
106.- Indigenous Community Angosto El Perchel, Tilcara, Jujuy
Cátedra Libre de Pueblos Originarios, Afrodescendientes y Migrantes de la Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia ‘San Juan Bosco’.
National University of Patagonia ‘San Juan Bosco’.
108.- Diaguita Indigenous Community of Valle de Tafí, province of Tucumán.
109.- DIAGUITA CALCHAQUI INDIO COLALAO INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY – TUCUMAN
Kolla Cueva del Inca de Tilcara Community, province of Jujuy.
111.- Quintriqueo Lof Kinxikew indigenous community of Villa La Angostura, Neuquén.
Mapuche Confederation of Neuquén.
Unión de los Pueblos de la Nación Diaguita Tucumán
Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights Regional Viedma and Patagones, Río Negro.
María Esther Norval of the Evangelical Church Río de la Plata.
Luis García Rodríguez, Bishopric of Viedma, Río Negro Province.
Daniel Roger, Evangelical Methodist Church.
118.- Asamblea Antimegaminería de Bariloche, Bariloche, Argentina.
Multisectorial Comarca Marítima Viedma -Patagones- El Cóndor
120.-Frente Dario Santillán Corriente Plurinacional en Vientos del Pueblos
121.-Feminists of Abya Yala.
122.- The collective Heart of Time, province of Río Negro.
123.- Red Jarilla de Plantas Saludables de la Patagonia.
124.- El Kuktrunazo. Furilofche
125.- Environmental Tribune
126.- Partido Obrero Río Negro
Espacio mapuche tewelche Pu Folil Espacio de encuentro con las raíces-Biblioteca popular,
Comodoro Rivadavia, Province of Chubut.
Asociación Civil Árbol de Pie Bariloche (Bariloche Standing Tree Civil Association)
