The Wichí activist Octarina Zamora, left, at an act to demand justice for Pamela Julia Flores, a 12-year-old Wichí girl murdered in January. INADI
In 2019, a court in the Argentine province of Salta sentenced six men to 17 years in prison for the gang rape of a 12-year-old Wichí girl who suffered from a mental deficiency.
This reparative ruling was a first step to make visible the crime of
chineo
—as the rape by white men of indigenous girls, boys and women is known in Argentina— and to crack the impunity with which it has been perpetrated for centuries in the areas rural and impoverished in the northwest of the country.
Even so, the collective sexual abuse continued.
Between January and March, Pamela, a 12-year-old Wichí girl, and Florencia, a 14-year-old teenager, were murdered.
Their bodies, found next to two provincial highways in Salta, showed signs of sexual violence.
These femicides had little echo in the rest of the country, but they caused a tsunami within the indigenous communities.
The women began to break the silence on a taboo subject: almost thirty were encouraged to report that they had been raped.
The complainants now have the support of social leaders and human rights organizations, who demand urgent measures to stop these crimes and that hate crimes be declared.
“They are not cultural practices, as is often said.
They are plain and simple violations ”, denounces the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs (INAI).
"These are sexual abuses that occur with the complicit gaze of many of those who should protect them," adds Magdalena Odarda by phone, director of this organization designed to ensure the rights of indigenous communities in Argentina.
The INAI filed a criminal complaint last week based on 27 cases identified by the Wichí leader Octorina Zamora, who recently died.
“Of those women, only three had made the complaint.
They live in a very hostile climate, in which there is a lot of intimidation and fear of different forms of retaliation,” explains Odarda.
The INAI wants to be a plaintiff in the case.
manhunt
The origins of
chineo
date back to colonization (the Spanish began calling indigenous women chinas because of their slanted eyes), but it continues today.
Most of the victims live in rural areas, in conditions of extreme poverty and with an absent State.
In some cases, the crime is perpetrated by "groups of men who go to the mountains and hunt down adolescents and girls, running, chasing, knocking down and raping them," according to INADI.
In others, they deceive them with the aim of sexually abusing them and if they get pregnant they do not take responsibility.
⚠️ #Communiqué #AboliciónDelChineoYa #BastaDeChineo
From the Mov.
we want to let the whole society know, regarding a consensus decision during the 3rd Parliament in Salta.
There we decided to request an audience with President Alberto Fernández, urgently pic.twitter.com/4yNUpStRHW
– Movement of Indigenous Women for Good Living (@mmindigenas) June 2, 2022
“My child's father was a man who came to work on the road.
I got pregnant when I was 14 years old, he was 40. After a while he left, he left me alone and went to another province.
Over time I understood that I was abused and I didn't know it”, says one of the testimonies of the letter prepared by the first General Assembly of indigenous women of Route 81, last February.
“I worked cleaning in a house in the town of Pluma.
My boss got me pregnant and never took care of it.
He rejects us, we are his shame.
But he continues to do the same with other women, with other girls, ”says another of the testimonies.
The letter was delivered to the Minister of Justice of Salta, Abel Cornejo, to ask for his support and protection: “Local justice denies us any possibility of action, making us feel that our struggle is in vain and that what happens to us is part of something daily.
We constantly suffer discrimination and are constantly subjected so that our cases do not come to light.”
Odarda emphasizes that the children born of these sexual abuses "do not have a father present or food or social protection", so the State must not only guarantee that there is justice for the victims but also offer them "containment and guarantees so that their rights are fulfilled". Rights".
Salta Senator Walter Cruz proposes creating a commission to receive complaints of sexual abuse of members of indigenous communities.
The indigenous women want to take the cases to the Casa Rosada.
They will request an audience with the president, Alberto Fernández, so that he can hear his claims.
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