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Mapuche Leaders Decry Land Rights Violations Amid Argentina Evictions
(MENAFN) Mapuche community leaders in Argentina's Neuquen province spoke out Tuesday against what they describe as violations of their territorial rights, as evictions and disputes over ancestral lands continue to mount, according to media reports.
"Democracy has an eternal debt to Indigenous peoples; they subject us to express evictions without a law," said Lorenzo Loncan, spokesman for the Lof Paicil Antriao, in remarks reported by the newspaper Pagina/12.
Loncon went further, accusing multiple levels of the judiciary of disregarding both international and domestic legal protections. "We denounce the Supreme Court, federal courts and provincial courts for failing to comply with ILO Convention 169, which requires free and informed consultation, as well as with the National Constitution," he said. "More than 40 Indigenous peoples are Argentine, like the Malvinas and the disappeared."
The Lof Paicil Antriao community is based in Villa La Angostura, a tourist destination in Neuquen, and has been locked in a protracted battle over land rights. In February, a Neuquen court denied the community's appeal and upheld an eviction order tied to land at the Correntoso campsite — a case that also touches on property owned by former Argentine basketball star Emanuel Ginobili.
The dispute is unfolding as Argentina's Congress weighs reforms to property law that could streamline eviction procedures. The Senate passed its version of the legislation earlier this month, incorporating measures for expedited evictions along with revisions to rules on private property and expropriations.
Mapuche representatives have cautioned that these changes could jeopardize communities already engaged in long-running territorial claims. Tensions over the issue escalated after Argentina repealed Law 26.160 in December 2024 — legislation that had declared a territorial emergency for Indigenous communities and paused evictions while surveys of traditionally occupied lands were carried out.
According to media reports, two Mapuche communities, Lof Kinxikew and Lof Melo, were forcibly removed from territories near Villa La Angostura on Aug. 19.
Mapuche communities maintain that their claims to these lands are safeguarded under Argentina's Constitution and its Indigenous rights framework.
"Democracy has an eternal debt to Indigenous peoples; they subject us to express evictions without a law," said Lorenzo Loncan, spokesman for the Lof Paicil Antriao, in remarks reported by the newspaper Pagina/12.
Loncon went further, accusing multiple levels of the judiciary of disregarding both international and domestic legal protections. "We denounce the Supreme Court, federal courts and provincial courts for failing to comply with ILO Convention 169, which requires free and informed consultation, as well as with the National Constitution," he said. "More than 40 Indigenous peoples are Argentine, like the Malvinas and the disappeared."
The Lof Paicil Antriao community is based in Villa La Angostura, a tourist destination in Neuquen, and has been locked in a protracted battle over land rights. In February, a Neuquen court denied the community's appeal and upheld an eviction order tied to land at the Correntoso campsite — a case that also touches on property owned by former Argentine basketball star Emanuel Ginobili.
The dispute is unfolding as Argentina's Congress weighs reforms to property law that could streamline eviction procedures. The Senate passed its version of the legislation earlier this month, incorporating measures for expedited evictions along with revisions to rules on private property and expropriations.
Mapuche representatives have cautioned that these changes could jeopardize communities already engaged in long-running territorial claims. Tensions over the issue escalated after Argentina repealed Law 26.160 in December 2024 — legislation that had declared a territorial emergency for Indigenous communities and paused evictions while surveys of traditionally occupied lands were carried out.
According to media reports, two Mapuche communities, Lof Kinxikew and Lof Melo, were forcibly removed from territories near Villa La Angostura on Aug. 19.
Mapuche communities maintain that their claims to these lands are safeguarded under Argentina's Constitution and its Indigenous rights framework.
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