Several Mapuche communities claim 83% of an Army property in Bariloche

In the last ten years, to the instruction in specialized techniques of the military personnel, the Mountain Military School that he army has in Bariloche incorporated, in fact, legal training. Through various judicial processes, several communities that identify with Mapuche origin They claim rights over the property and demand that the property titles be handed over to them. indigenous peoples jointly demand a surface of 3000 hectares (83% of the land).The conflict places uncomfortable situation for Kirchnerism, that in 2012 it issued an emergency in terms of possession and ownership of the lands claimed by native communities and gave special importance to the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs (INAI), that accredited different claims administratively. Now, given the progress of the legal cases, the Ministry of Defense, led by Jorge Taiana, finds itself in the position of defend the interests of the State and the Armed Forces in the files.Although in this case the lands are managed by the Army, the owner is the state. Therefore the Ministry of Defense appealed the judicial decision that set a term of 60 days for the Executive Power to deliver to the community Millalonco Ranquehue the titles that accredit her as the owner of 372 hectares of the property.The Millalonco-Ranquehue Mapuche community claimed the property titles in court. Facebook Another five communities set their claims on the map and claim adjoining parcels of the same property, as if “there had been a lengthy agreement to avoid overlaps in the claims”, evaluated a military source. To the 372 hectares claimed by Millalonco Ranquehue, another 612 required by the community are added. Valentine Robles and 410 hectares claimed by the group Hualas We, in which he acts Maria Isabel Huala the mother of the declared fugitive Facundo Jones Huala.The Mapuche communities also demand Lof Che Celestino Quijada (304 hectares), Trypay Antu (250) and the Lof Che Carriqueo, with a more modest requirement: two hectares. Added to this two parcels claimed by descendants of Eduardo Goyewho demand recognition of their status as “agricultural producers with roots in Colonia Suiza”, arguing that they settled in the area following the Mapuche communities route. They claim to own 1,050 hectares of the military property. The difference with the other demands is that in this case they do not have the endorsement of the INAI and the Council for the Development of Indigenous Communities of the province of Río Negro. The trial that everyone looks askance at is that of Millalonco Ranquehue, because could set a precedent especially after the sentence handed down by the federal judge Silvina Dominguez, that last February 2 ordered that the State deliver the property titles to the Mapuche organization. The response of the Ministry of Defense was the appeal, signed by the lawyer Silvia Vazquez, representative of the national state. He argued that, despite the fact that the Army is not a party to the proceedings, the sentence causes him “irreparable damage.” “The property is part of the unique and distinctive educational complex of international level that the Argentine Army and the Armed Forces have in the Cordillera de los Andes to develop the centralized and specialized training of its personnel in basic and advanced techniques of military work in the mountains”, he specified in the appeal. With the same emphasis, the appeal states that the sentence “affects the national defensebecause it would prevent the Army, through the Mountain Military School, from continuing to carry out the training of military personnel, simultaneously hindering the preparation and enlistment of personnel and means that are destined to support the local community in emergency situations generated by fires and adverse weather conditions.Judge Silvina Domínguez agreed to the Mapuche community’s claim, but the sentence was appealed. To justify the sentence, Judge Domínguez relied on the measurement carried out by the INAI, the body created in 1985 to “ensure the “exercise of full citizenship of the members of indigenous peoples”, whose rights were later recognized in 1994 in the Reform of the National Constitution. In 1996 the National Registry of Indigenous Communities was created, that recognizes their legal status, and in the Kirchnerist period, Law 26,160 was passed, which declared an emergency in terms of possession and ownership of land.That norm ordered the INAI to carry out a survey of the indigenous communities and of the lands they occupied at that time (November 2006), but also those that would correspond to them to inhabit in a traditional way (by material and symbolic signs recognizable in the territory) and publicly (occupation recognized by third parties). 2003, the year the Kirchners came to power, Millalonco Ranquehue was recognized as the legal status and in 2012 the INAI recognized the occupation of the territoryIn 2021, the community presented a protection for the granting of the property title and Judge Domínguez ordered the Executive Branch to comply with that requirement. The Ministry of Defense argued in its appeal that the Army did not participate or was requested by the INAI in the administrative actions that concluded with this recognition. Another expectant precedent is the case of the community Trypay Antu. In 2016, its leaders asked the State to hand over the deed transferring ownership of the community lands, a claim that was granted by a judge of first instance in May 2018. But in November of that year, the National Court of Appeals in what Federal Administrative Litigation declared the sentence null, ordered that the province of Río Negro be summoned and a new ruling be issued. The file is now in the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.