Two men are in the crosshairs of the Patagonian inhabitants affected by the wave of violence from activists who invoke the Mapuche struggle.
A war that, they say, is "against the white occupation", against the "foreigners", against the "companies" and against the very recognition of the Argentine and Chilean States.
Both men are considered among the
possible successors
to the leadership that Facundo Jones Huala had at the time
.
The former leader of the radicalized group Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche (RAM) was
arrested at dawn on January 30 in a state of total intoxication
, dressed in a woman's skirt and blouse, after spending a year on the run from Argentine and Chilean justice.
Now he is waiting in the Esquel prison for the federal justice here to accept or not an extradition request from his trans-Andean counterpart.
Alone, without obvious leadership because he does not enjoy the public, popular and youth support he had at the time, Jones Huala faces
figures who can take his place
due to the characteristics of the leadership of these activist groups.
This is how this newspaper was able to confirm it with residents who are victims of violence by those who claim the Mapuche claim in Argentine Patagonia, especially in the Río Negro and Chubut areas.
One of those men who are closely followed by the residents is
Roberto Ñancucheo
,
who at the time regularly participated as a panelist on the public television program 6,7,8,
a platform from which Christianity attacked the media and journalists who did not take communion. with the government of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner.
According to the journalist specialized in Patagonian issues, Rodolfo Florido, who wrote a long article on this issue on the Bendito Urbano site, Ñancucheo was "the
alleged brain activated
by Cristi-Kirchnerism after Facundo Jones Huala was arrested drunk and transvestite. Solo we had to make a coup and hand over 21,500 hectares to the self-perceived Lonko (boss) of Lof Pewel Katuwe in San Rafael Mendoza”.
Florido
has been following in the footsteps of Ñancucheo, who, in addition to appearing on channel 7 panels, over time began to have jobs in the public administration while appearing as a lonko (cacique) of the Pewel Katuwé community, in San Rafael , Mendoza.
This took place after in 2013 and in 2016 the Zonal Councils of the Province of Neuquén repudiated him under the accusation of
'false Mapuche authority', and also of attempting to "boycott assemblies, provoke confrontations between the communities, among other things." complaints".
“The Christian-Kirchnerist construction of Ñancucheo had been going on for many years.
While the legally registered Mapuche communities repudiated him, Ñancucheo had different functions as a public official until he landed in San Rafael where he would invent a non-existent Mapuche community under the protection of a Peronist mayor," says Florido, referring to the management of 21,000 hectares of land that he Indeed, it will have to be the lonko in San Rafael, and yet to have been born, they affirm in Neuquén.
Clarín
tried unsuccessfully to communicate with Ñancucheo, who, unlike Jones Huala, is, despite his ancestral claims, very much inserted in the State.
In 2021 he appears appointed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries with the
position of coordinator of native peoples.
Later, the Mendoza Secretary of the Environment recognized him by summoning him to change the name of the aboriginal park of Parque San Martín to "Park of the Original Peoples".
Meanwhile, the deputies María José Sanz and Gabriel Vilche stated that this community "presents itself as a cultural entity, although it is the platform that justifies the political actions of a public official who is its leader, Ñancucheo, who was repudiated in Neuquén. After retiring from the neighboring province, he looked for a place to 'ancestralize', landing a few years ago in the south of Mendoza".
Florido will remember that Lonko's condition is inherited
through family roots or is also obtained through leadership in a community
, such is the case of Jones Huala, who is not really a Mapuche with a “black palate” because he has British ancestors, but he grew up fighting.
The leader of the RAM, now disgraced, fought with land occupations, battles that he fought - and that he claims - with attacks with fire, sticks and weapons, here and in Chile, where he received training from the feared Arauco-Malleco Coordinator.
The road to Ñancucheo is long and different, but those who know it assure that it is on the “route”.
Other possible successors
Another of the men who can occupy the leadership that Huala had is the
former park ranger Cruz Cárdenas
, who was identified as the author of recent mountain fires in Chubut that devoured 2000 hectares and for which the justice system maintains an arrest warrant.
The authorities of the Los Alerces National Park have identified the alleged perpetrator of the fires in the Chubut mountain range that have already destroyed more than 2,000 hectares.
And he is one of the leaders of the occupation in Palaiko Park.
The Lof Palaiko activists then appropriated land and a park ranger's house in the Villa Futalaufquen area.
Since then, federal justice has maintained a case against Cárdenas “FCR 195/2020 Cárdenas, Cruz s/usurpation”.
And he even has a request for the arrest of Cárdenas since 2021 Cárdena is listed as the author of several attacks but he is missing.
In reality, as Clarín's correspondent in Río Negro, Claudio Andrade, recounted, although Jones Huala was arrested on January 30, his followers are still at large.
His place is still vacant.