Pichetto: “The Mapuche were an invading people who stole cattle and women, and disputed the Patagonian territory in favor of Chile”

The dispute over the delivery of land to Mapuche communities in the province of Mendoza will experience a new chapter today, when a complaint is formalized for “treason against the fatherland” contra Alexandre MarmoniDirector of the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs (Henna).

The nation’s auditor general, Miguel Angel Pichetto, explained that the judicial presentation concerns the delivery of 25,000 hectares of the province of Mendoza to different indigenous groups. Furthermore, he explained that Marmoni is charged in addition to the offenses of dereliction of duty as a public official and abuse of authority.

Over the past two weeks, the INAI has awarded more than 21,500 hectares two Mapuche communities: El Sosneado, from San Rafael, and Suyai Levfu, from Malargüe. Both claimed the recognition of these lands under the argument of their ancestral presence in the lands of Cuyo.

Before formalizing the complaint in the courts of Comodoro Py, Pichetto assured that “In Mendoza there have never been Mapuches” and assured that “the fragmentation that Argentina experiences when it recognizes the land to anyone because it perceives itself as Mapuche is very dangerous”.

“The Mapuche is not from Argentina, it has no original rights. The Mapuche were an invading people who stole cattle and stole women, and disputed Patagonian territory in favor of Chile.“, recalled the Auditor General of the Nation in statements to Radio Miter.

Likewise, Pichetto expressed concern about the discretionary adjudication of land, even given the existence of a provincial Supreme Court ruling that dismissed the claims of these pseudo-Mapuche communities. “We are faced with real nonsense. He begins to dispute the Argentine territory where the so-called winners will respect neither the law nor the Argentine state.

The Auditor General of the Nation also recalled that the territorial claims of these groups are carried out violently: “In my province, there have been attacks, fires and sabotage. There are also links with Chile’s CAM (Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco) armed group.“, he underlined.

“There is a map that contains all the conflict points and the disputed lands would exceed 12 million hectares in all the countries. We are talking about a territory similar to two provinces. Here, there are people who activate that, which is crazy: the constitution of an autonomous state on the national territory, ”concluded Pichetto.

Along with the announced criminal complaint, the result of the administrative appeal filed by the province of Mendoza with the INAI is awaited, with which it seeks to annul the resolutions with which the body -dependent on the Ministry of Justice- delivered lands to different Mapuche communities.

On behalf of Mendoza, the Minister of Government, Labor and Justice, Víctor Ibáñez, presented three appeals for review against INAI resolutions regarding the occupation of recognized lands by Mapuche communities.

In these appeals, the province has raised what it understands to be all the irregularities of the resolutions, both in the procedure that was carried out for its issuance “without the proper intervention of the province, and with regard to the substantive aspects related to the illegality of the extension of Law 26160 ordered by the DNU, the lack of powers of the INAI to recognize the occupation of land by the communities, the historical declarations on the non-existence of a historical presence of the Mapuches in the provincial territory, among other aspects”, they indicated.

“The resolutions of the INAI present defects in all the essential elements of an administrative act, that is to say in the competence, the cause, the object, the procedure, the motivation and the goal. Each of these vices is developed in the provincial presentation, which allows us to conclude that the resolutions are null, absolutely null and incurable, and illegitimate, which is why they must be annulled by the body that issued them”, has said the province. Mendoza.

Last weekend, neighbors and agricultural producers mobilized across the province to refuse the transfer of land to these communities. Thousands of vehicles mobilized on Saturday morning in the municipalities of The Molles and the Sosneado.

With banners and horns, one group of demonstrators left from Pareditas, San Carlos (Valle de Uco), while the other left from the south of the province. The two caravans will finally meet in El Sosneado to express their disagreement.

The peak of the protest occurred around 6:00 p.m. 1500 vehicles coming from different points of the provincial territory converged on Route 40. There, at the end of the protest, a document was read asking for the immediate revocation of the resolutions of the INAI.

Continue reading: