From the CLACSO working group “Indigenous Peoples, Autonomies and Collective Rights” we express our concern regarding the criminalization, imprisonment and racist campaign of persecution that the Mapuche Tehuelche people are suffering in the province of Chubut, Argentina.

On February 11, 2025, militarized police raided several communities in the province: the Lof Cañiu, the Lof Catriman Colihueque, the Lof Nahuelpan, and the Lof Pillan Mahuiza, along with the Petü Mongueleiñ Community Radio station, and a private residence in El Maitén. Security forces broke into homes, smashed doors and windows, beat elderly people in front of children, and confiscated books on sociology, politics, and literature. The search warrant was issued by Judge Jorge Criado, an active member of the Radical Civic Union and the PRO party, both aligned with the current government, and a member of the Argentine Rural Society, an association of large landowners previously denounced before the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for discriminatory practices against Mapuche communities. During the raids, Victoria Dolores Fernández Núñez of the Lof Pillan Mahuiza was arrested, and the aforementioned judge ordered her to be held in pretrial detention for 60 days, charged with allegedly participating in starting fires in the area.

With these raids, the provincial and national governments are attempting to blame the Mapuche-Tehuelche people for the fires that continue to spread in Patagonia, deepening the constant attacks and criminalization suffered by this community at the hands of the authorities, who continually accuse the Mapuche of using violent methods to demand rights that do not belong to them and do not hesitate to call them terrorists. However, the Mapuche-Tehuelche communities they are trying to incriminate are traditionally defenders of Mapu—Mother Earth—on which they depend for their survival, and the accusations made in the context of the fires' spread lack any basis or evidence.

Furthermore, there is evidence that the government's firefighting plan has been inefficient and uncoordinated, due both to the underfunding of policies necessary to prevent and respond to fires and to the underestimation of their catastrophic effects. Since the end of December, more than 35.000 hectares of native forests have burned, causing irreparable material and human damage.

This occurs within the context of a government that seeks to disregard and eliminate the constitutional rights of the people, as well as deny the devastating effects of climate change on their territories, while simultaneously promoting the advancement of hegemonic extractive development models that destroy forests, privatize mountains and waterways, and displace local inhabitants.

We condemn the racist and authoritarian actions of the governor of the Argentine province of Chubut, Ignacio Torres, and the national security minister, Patricia Bullrich, who reproduce and exacerbate discriminatory and oppressive practices against indigenous peoples; we demand the immediate release of Victoria Dolores Fernández Núñez and respect for constitutionally enshrined indigenous rights.

February 14th 2025
CLACSO Working Groups
Indigenous peoples, autonomies and collective rights

This statement expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Group and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.