Claudio Andrade
02/13/2021 2:37 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 02/13/2021 2:37 PM
The mayor of El Bolsón,
Bruno Pogliano
, was violently threatened and detained by a group of 15 people while visiting the Cuesta del Ternero residents affected by the forest fire that consumed some 7000 hectares.
The attackers
carried knives, machetes and had their faces painted black
, revealed the mayor.
Pogliano and the officials who accompanied him were at the María Lucinda Quintupuray Primary School No. 211 in Cuesta Ternero on Friday when around 15 people arrived at the place and began to intimidate the highest local authority.
Although Pogliano decided to withdraw to avoid an escalation of violence, the strangers prevented his departure, thus generating a high tension situation.
Cuesta Ternero's own neighbors, who had repeatedly requested Pogliano's presence during the worst weeks of the fire,
had to intervene and protect Pogliano
so that he was not injured.
The more than 300 brigade members are currently working in the flame control phase and the worst seems to have passed.
Among those who led the group was Andrea Millañanco, wife of lonko Facundo Jones Huala, arrested in Chile for the burning of a property in 2013. Millañanco also participated in the usurpation of 1,200 hectares in Cushamen in 2017 from the Benetton family.
It is the property where Santiago Maldonado drowned on August 1 of the same year.
Local sources indicate that the group is made up of indigenous militants who encourage the figure of Jones Huala in the region and by members of the Excluded Workers Movement led by Juan Grabois.
"I
identified some, there was Jones Huala's wife
and there were several people who make up the anti-mining group," he told
Clarín
Pogliano.
In the Pagano Plaza of El Bolsón, another group with tents was installed days ago in an alleged claim due to the advance of the fire in the region.
However, the neighbors began to reject the initiative.
The rumor in town is that these people are also part of the gang that attacked Pogliano.
“There are new people here, they have brought boys from different parts of the country, who respond to Grabois.
In theory they are going to control prices and that is why they came in the first place ”,
a business voice from the Andean community
tells
Clarín
.
The mayor, for his part, denounced the attack in his networks and announced that he will go to court.
“This afternoon (Friday) I suffered a threatening situation while participating in a peaceful meeting with residents affected by the fire in Cuesta del Ternero.
At the end of it, 15 people broke in, some hooded and others with faces painted black, carrying machetes and knives, who threatened me and prevented me from leaving the place, depriving me of my freedom, ”Pogliano said on his Facebook account.
“I was accompanied by officials from my municipal Cabinet.
And the councilor Rosa Monsalve and the manager of Anses de El Bolsón Leandro Garcia were present.
The neighbors of the place had to intervene so that I could withdraw from the place.
These facts are inadmissible.
They speak of the level of violence and impunity on the part of these individuals, whom I am going to criminally denounce so that justice can investigate and put a stop to this type of abuse, "he added.
The Cuesta Ternero sector is where the fire started on January 24 when a group of people left a fire burning.
Over the last 10 years, numerous families have settled there, appropriating lands considered natural reserves.
It is estimated that today the population exceeds 200 families counting Los Repollos and the area of the Mapuche Nahuelpan community.
Last year El Bolsón experienced moments of conflict when a group of 130 families usurped 60 hectares of the Forest Reserve in Mirador Azul and Cabeza del Indio.
The conflict has not yet been resolved despite the intervention of the Río Negro Justice.
In October, the Gallardo Calfú Mapuche community illegally occupied around 600 hectares belonging to the Soriani family.
Finally, after a court order, the occupants were evicted without any acts of violence.