Conflict between the Army and Mapuche over lands of the Mountain school in Bariloche

Daniel Santoro

07/10/2020 - 22:31

• Clarín.com

• Politics

The Army

the advance of a Mapuche community on some 100 of the 700 hectares that the “General Perón” Mountain Military School has near the Gutiérrez stream in Bariloche and

a nursery that had been built on those lands. 

An Army spokesman

to

that the Minister of Defense, Agustín Rossi, had ordered the Army to withdraw from the area, but ordered that

.

The director of the military school has already delivered to the Bariloche court

that would confirm that the land is in "custody of the weapon."

The Army

as it should be because it is military land, but it awaits instructions from the Justice and prevents them from continuing to prune trees, among other modifications to the land.

But the Mapuches have

"There was no act of violence," clarified the military spokesman who said that the problem "has been going on for several years" but has now worsened these days.

The heads of the Escuela Militar de Montaña appeared in the Federal Court of Bariloche on Monday and filed a complaint for

, also warning that they would maintain custody of the property in conflict.

This is the first time that the seizure of land in Patagonia by Mapuche communities comes

and creates a delicate situation in the area.

In addition, a few kilometers from there, the Mapuches have taken a property on Lake Mascardi where there was an act of violence with the Prefecture in 2018. And a year before, after a land seizure in Chubut, the Gendarmerie persecuted, in the eviction of Route 40, to the artisan Santiago Maldonado who drowned, as determined by Justice.

The Río Negro newspaper reported that Matías Schraer, a lawyer for the Mapuche Millalonco Ranquehue de Bariloche community, denounced Army personnel

The lawyer said that the community had been developing for several months “a spectacular project of an intercultural community garden with families from the Villa Los Coihues neighborhood”.

The community members, together with families from Villa Los Coihues, had erected “

, on land belonging to the Millalonco Ranquehue community, located in the area of ​​provincial route 82, between Virgen de las Nieves and Villa Los Coihues ”.

But community members came across personnel from the Mountain Military School installed on Monday who dismantled them over the weekend.

“They cut all the posts and removed the hose that had been installed for the greenhouse irrigation,” Schraer described.

Some 40 families are participating in the intercultural community garden project.

He said that they went to ask for explanations from those in charge of the Bariloche Mountain Military School.

There, they were informed that they had entered the property in order to protect those lands, because they thought it was a seizure and that they had filed a judicial complaint.

The lawyer said that the community is now waiting for an apology from the Army and for the materials to be returned to them in order to continue with the undertaking.

"They just took all the materials," observed Schraer.

“Everyone in that area knows that the lands

.

Also, if it was a shot, they are not going to put up a greenhouse ”, he stated.

The lawyer reported that the community

.

"It is a community recognized by the national State and it is one of the few that has approved land measurement," he said.

He said that the measurement is registered in the municipal Cadastre.

He indicated that the lands that the community owns reach "about 400 hectares2. In total, the property of 700 hectares in the vicinity of the Gutiérrez stream. The takeover began days ago with the cutting of trees in that area. A complaint was filed with the Court Federal but the occupants presented documentation from the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs (INAI) that would define, they say, the cession of the lands in their favor.