Trial against Lof Winkul Mapu: "We cannot be usurpers of our own territory"
The trial against the Lafken Winkul Mapu Mapuche community began yesterday. They accuse eight people of "usurping" a National Parks property 40km from Bariloche. Betiana, the machi (Mapuche spiritual leader), who was a teenager at the time of the events, was acquitted yesterday at the first hearing.
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Yesterday, the trial began against the Mapuche community Lof Lafken Winkul Mapu . Eight people are accused of "usurping" a National Parks property in the Villa Mascardi area, 40 km from Bariloche, in 2017. The case began that year with an eviction during which Coast Guard officers shot Rafael Nahuel in the back and women were arrested along with their children.
The legal proceedings are being handled by the Federal Court of San Carlos de Bariloche. There will be three hearings: on September 26, 27, and 30, and they can be followed live.
The Lawyers' Association is handling the defense of the members of the Lof community. Only ten people are allowed to accompany the community in the courtroom. However, there is space for representatives of the National Parks Administration, who requested the presence of officials from the Ministry of Defense. The proceedings are being streamed on YouTube through the profile of the National Council of the Judiciary.
The lawsuit, filed by the National Parks Administration, accuses the defendants of having “dispossessed the Argentine Naval Prefecture, which was in charge of custody, of possession of the property (…) owned by the National Parks Administration.” The six members of the Lof community were charged with “usurpation by dispossession” of the property located at kilometer 2006 of Route 40 in Villa Mascardi.
The trial began shortly after 9:00 a.m. at the Gendarmerie Squadron 34 in Bariloche. It was held there because the courtroom was too small, amidst a massive security deployment that included four city blocks cordoned off.
The machi Betiana, acquitted
At the time of the eviction, one of the accused, the machi (spiritual authority) Betiana Colhuan Nahuel, was 16 years old. At the beginning of the hearing, the children's advocate Roxana Fariña requested that the statute of limitations be applied to the charges against her.
“The lives of teenagers are fragile, suspended while a legal process unfolds. In Betiana's case, seven years have passed, and she has two children. All the legal and regulatory conditions regarding the statute of limitations have been met, preventing her prosecution for this crime,” the defense attorney stated. Judge Hugo Greca granted the request for dismissal and invited her to leave the courtroom along with the Public Prosecutor representing minors.
The Lof community hopes that the other defendants will also be acquitted. “ We are not usurpers. We cannot be usurpers of our own territory,” the machi emphasized.
Defense attorney Eduardo Soares requested that Colhuan be admitted as a witness. The judge will decide this Friday.
A violent eviction operation: the beginning
The case that went to trial began in 2017 with an eviction operation against the Lof community on November 23 in Villa Mascardi. Six women and five children were arrested, restrained with zip ties, and held in cells. On the 25th, Rafael Nahuel was shot in the back and Johana Colhuan Nahuel (the machi's sister) and Gonzalo Coña were wounded by lead bullets. The community remained in the territory for another five years.
On October 4, 2022, another operation evicted the community and prompted the resignation of the Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta . The Mapuche spiritual leader Betiana Colhuan Nahuel and Celeste Ardaiz Guenumil were imprisoned along with their babies and older children. Two other women were also detained: Luciana Jaramillo, with her two children, and Romina Rosas, nine months pregnant with a daughter. Romina gave birth in captivity and suffered obstetric violence. All four were under house arrest for eight months.
Eviction of women and children
The witnesses who testified on the first day recalled the presence of women, who were detained with zip ties, and children during the eviction. Rocío Ievscek, an agent of the Argentine Federal Police who participated in the operation, described them as “nervous” and “afraid.”
He also considered the eviction to have been carried out “peacefully.” Along these lines, Tomás Elías Aníbal Vicente Relmo, an eyewitness to the event, said that the people detained “were calm.” Regarding acts of “violence” by those evicted, Ievscek shared that they occurred within the context of a tense situation.
“The woman was holding a child and was very scared. I told her to stay calm. And in the midst of her panic, she slapped me. I told her to calm down, that everything would be alright, we went downstairs and stayed there,” he said.
National Parks, unwilling to engage in dialogue
“Defense attorney Laura Taffetani, from the Lawyers' Association, highlighted that the statement by the then-mayor of Nahuel Huapi National Park, Damián Horacio Mujica, showed "what is really thought in relation to the native communities."
Mujica confirmed in his statement that there was no dialogue between his administration and the community. “A dialogue table was established at the university, and staff from the INAI (National Institute of Indigenous Affairs) were present. We always remained on the sidelines of those meetings. We never participated as National Parks.”
According to Mujica, who was mayor in 2017, there was a dialogue in which the community was informed that they could not be there. “The irregularity did not cease; they remained in their place, and it was not possible to verify and notify them that they had 30 days to vacate the premises,” he stated.
“There will be no peace with injustice”
“We know that sentence is a foregone conclusion. We already attended the trial with one person detained, Gonzalo Coña, whose detention is outrageous. And Luciana Jaramillo and Romina Rosas—seven months pregnant—are under house arrest from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. We could list countless irregularities,” Taffetani shared during a press conference ahead of the trial.
“We also know that the justice of the people will be what truly brings peace in the long run . There will be no peace with injustice, with conflicts swept under the rug. And here, the peoples we recognized in the Constitution deserve to have their rights restored,” he added.
Agreement breached
Following the eviction, a large delegation was formed to negotiate with the national government. The process culminated in the signing of an agreement on June 1, 2023, between Mapuche representatives and the National Secretariat for Human Rights, the National Parks Agency, and the Ministries of Environment, Security, and Women, Gender and Diversity.
In that agreement, the Mapuche prisoners were released, the State committed to recognizing the rewe as a sacred site and allowing the machi to live there and use it for ceremonial and medicinal purposes. The rest of the community agreed to be relocated to another territory. The agreement was ratified by Judge Hugo Greca, thus dismissing the case for usurpation.
However, the outgoing government did not fully implement the agreement. In April of this year, in line with the policy promoted by Javier Milei's government, the National Parks Administration announced that it was nullifying what it had signed ten months earlier. And in August, the Federal Court of Cassation overturned Judge Greca's approval of the agreement. In its ruling, the Court of Cassation stated that the other residents of Villa Mascardi, even though they are not parties to the dispute, had not been consulted. This is why the case went to trial.
In this context, on September 11, Judge Greca issued arrest warrants for Luciana Jaramillo and Romina Rosas, “in order to guarantee the holding of the hearing.” A few days ago, Luciana was approached by the Federal Police in Cushamen without being told she was under arrest. Her children were left alone at home, and she was taken to Bariloche. Upon learning of the warrant, Romina Rosas voluntarily turned herself in to the Gendarmerie in El Bolsón. Presentes accompanied her during the three hours she waited for the court's decision. Ultimately, it was decided not to arrest her only because she is seven months pregnant.
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