Claudio Andrade
08/10/2020 12:00
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 10/08/2020 11:25 AM
The end of the Mascardi conflict is still far off, but officials from the Ministry of Security, led by Sabina Frederic, are sketching a way out that will not be without controversy.
As confirmed to Clarín from the Government, the idea of Frederic's team is that the Lafken Winkul Mapu community conserve part of the territory that they began to occupy in November 2017 and that they have been expanding in the last three years to reach 30 hectares.
The space that could remain in their power would be the six fiscal hectares where they were installed at the beginning and that are under the administration of Nahuel Huapi National Parks.
In return, the Mapuche militants would commit to permanently suspend any type of attack or violent activity
against the residents of the town or on Route 40.
Meanwhile, Minister Frederic works to shore up peace in the sector.
For this purpose, the official ordered the installation of
surveillance cameras
and technological devices capable of reading vehicle patents in Villa Mascardi.
With these instruments, police personnel will be able to monitor movements in and around the place.
The plan, endorsed by the governor of Río Negro Arabela Carreras, is to have a clearer control of the acts of violence that have been taking place in the area and, finally, to
detect those responsible for the attacks.
From Frederic's office, they anticipate that the cameras will not only monitor the behavior of members of the Mapuche community but also unknown persons who have been denounced for attacking the occupants with stones and
firearms.
Mascardi is today the hottest point of the Mapuche conflict in Patagonia.
Between 2017 and 2020, more than 110 attacks
of all kinds
have been registered,
including robberies, fires, retention of people, threats with firearms, usurpation, among others.
There are 17 cases filed in the Public Prosecutor's Office, but none have shown any signs of progress.
On Saturday, October 3, a new caravan of neighbors was developed that reached 400 vehicles.
The protesters went from the intersection of routes 82 and 40 to the vicinity of the Baqueanos campsite about 20 kilometers from the Mapuche occupation.
On this occasion, the Río Negro police did not intervene and no altercations occurred.
The previous caravan of August 29 that
was heading towards the Mascardi ACA
, a few meters from the capture, was stopped by police personnel.
Governor Carreras came to the place to talk with the neighbors.
From the Ministry of Security a criminal complaint was made in the Public Prosecutor's Office due to the threats and the call to use the weapons that were left unknown on social networks.
Mascardi has been in a tense calm for more than a month.
The immediate goal of Frederic's ministry is to lower the
"levels of aggression and violence"
in both directions, Gabriel Fuks, secretary of Federal Articulation of the Ministry of Security, tells Clarín.
“In the last march there were no problems.
Complaints or insults against me are a minor issue for us, here the important thing is that it was peaceful and that in general terms the level of aggressiveness and violence in this conflict fell, ”says Fuks.
“The complaint for the previous march was not against the participants but was due to the messages, very many, that were on the networks calling for violence or carrying weapons.
We told Justice: be careful with this.
But we do not denounce the neighbors, "he explains
.
In the last month Fuks and Minister Frederic have met twice with a group of villagers from Villa Mascardi.
Some of them stated at the outset that they hope that the Mapuches will be expelled from the usurped lands, "others encouraged intermediate solutions," the official indicates.
Although the Ministry of Security does not make it explicit, the intention of the officials is that the members of the lof Lafken Winkul Mapu remain in the sector and that the attacks cease completely.
The project is discussed with secrecy taking into account the extreme sensitivity of the subject.
There are residents of the place, always according to the Government, who would not be disappointed that the militants conserve a fraction of the space provided that tranquility reigns in their lives.
Former senator María Magdalena Odarda, president of the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs, would have the same idea, sources close to the official indicate.
Among some of the villagers there is a clear vision of the government's claims.
“(We are) uneasy that we are not going to have any positive results in our claim.
I believe that all the national organizations involved in this conflict are
going to cede territory in favor of this group of violent people, ”
Luis Dates, owner of the Los Radales cabin, told El Cordillerano.
"They said:" We are talking, we collected a request and we are going to make a counterproposal. "
Although they did not specify what they were referring to, that counterproposal is surely land, and probably Mascardi's, "added Dates.
From the ministry of Frederic, the participation of anthropologists would be implemented in the coming weeks to delve into the cultural roots of the conflict that, with regard to national history,
dates back to the military campaign of the Conquest of the Desert that began in 1878.
Some residents believe that
the minister is delaying
a more expeditious solution such as the eviction.
The last time that a federal judge, Gustavo Villanueva, ordered the removal of the occupants, it led to a confrontation in which Rafael Nahuel (22) died on November 25, 2017, officials argue.
“During the meetings, things came up that caught our attention and that last two or three seconds in a meeting lasting two and a half hours.
They are loose things like the anthropological studies and the request of the people, they said that way people, so that the officials do the swabs if they want to visit the intake, ”says Diego Frutos, owner of the La Candelaria cabin in Mascardi.
"You don't know if they are making a joke or if they are serious," he adds.
For his part, Fucks retruca.
“The former Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, removed the National Gendarmerie from the sector.
The work that needs to be done takes time and progress cannot be made every 24 hours as some ask.
The truth is that the level of violence in the conflict has dropped in recent months and that cannot be denied, ”he stressed.
GS