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The narrative presented by the Chubut judiciary and executive branches yesterday deepened its strategy of associating the Mapuche-Tehuelche people with the fires. In the hearing following the arrest of Victoria Núñez Fernández, a lagmien (woman) of the Lof Pillañ Mahuiza community, who was detained after raids on Mapuche communities in Chubut, she was ordered to be held in pretrial detention for two months. The public defender emphasized that there is no evidence linking her to the events attributed to her . However, Judge Jorge Criado, at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office, ordered 60 days of pretrial detention at Police Station 1 in Esquel.

Hours after the hearing, the governor of Chubut, Ignacio Torres (PRO), presented a timeline at a press conference connecting different events and distant locations - the eviction of Lof Pailako in January, the fire at the Amancay ranch in Trevelin and various fires including those in El Bolsón in the province of Río Negro - to accuse them of the fire that is ravaging Patagonia in various locations. 

Torres was accompanied at the media event by the mayor of Esquel, Matías Tacceta, the Minister of Security and Justice, Héctor Iturrioz, the police commissioner, Andrés García, and the Attorney General, Jorge Luis Miquelarena. The previous day, the Attorney General had refused to meet in his office with members of the Mapuche-Tehuelche communities who had gathered in response to the series of raids.

Also participating in the conference were Prosecutor Ismael Cerda and Esquel Prosecutor María Bottini. These two are the same individuals who are supporting Victoria's accusation and imprisonment, based on a line of argument constructed from misinformation and distortions. They all subscribe to the hypothesis explained by the governor, who yesterday repeatedly called the Mapuche people criminals, terrorists, dangerous, and extremists, accusing them of coordinating a strategy with ties to Chile. The governor repeatedly targeted Moira Millán and announced that he will initiate legal proceedings to evict the Lof Pillañ Mahuiza community. 

The accusation against Victoria and other Mapuche people

Victoria Núñez, who has lived for the past five years in the Lof Pillañ Mahuiza community (Corcovado, Chubut), is under investigation and accused of setting fire to machinery and trucks at Estancia Amancay, on the outskirts of Trevelin. The Prosecutor's Office says it has evidence pointing to her as an accomplice along with others. According to released expert reports, the attack occurred simultaneously on several vehicles parked in two different areas, and at least three people participated. However, all the evidence against her stems from the statement of a person who said they saw an unoccupied white vehicle, similar to Victoria's, a few meters from the ranch on the night of the fire.

Victoria's driving a white Kangoo is the plot thread that connects a series of serious accusations against her, but also against Moira Millán, who has inhabited that same territory since 1998. 

Millán was present yesterday at the hearing in courtroom number 2 of the Esquel courthouse, where Public Defenders Valeria Ponce and Laura Carpinetti and the Public Prosecutor's Office represented Maria Bottini, Ismael Cerda, and Cecilia Bagnato. He had previously given a press conference at the courthouse entrance (see below). 

Due to the courtroom's capacity, only 12 people, including members of the press and human rights organizations, were able to attend. In the front row sat Chubut's Minister of Security and Justice, Hector Iturrioz, and Police Commissioner García, who listened attentively to the entire hearing, seated next to sisters Moira and Evis Millán. 

Prosecutor María Bottini and prosecutors Cecilia Bagnato and Ismael Cerda presented the evidence gathered so far, following 12 simultaneous raids carried out on Tuesday. Judge Criado, in agreement with the Public Prosecutor's Office, ordered pretrial detention for 60 days. He rejected the proposal for house arrest at a neighbor's home in Esquel.

“Nuñez was not at the scene of the crime”

So far, the prosecution's case rests on dubious evidence that, according to the defense, does not provide conclusive proof of Victoria's presence at the scene of the crime. 

The public defender stated that Núñez was not present at the scene and mentioned compelling evidence they will present to demonstrate his innocence. Defender Ponce further stated that "he is being blamed for the actions of others," referring to absurd accusations of belonging to groups like the RAM, simply because he accompanies and travels with other communities, as is common among the Mapuche people who live on both sides of the Andes.

Victoria's arrest is part of a broader persecution of the Mapuche and Mapuche-Tehuelche communities in Chubut, and a media campaign to arbitrarily link Indigenous communities to acts of violence in a context where the national and provincial governments prioritize extractive and capitalist interests over Indigenous territories. This was denounced at two press conferences held simultaneously this morning in front of the courthouse in Esquel and at the entrance to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in Buenos Aires. 

While one of these press conferences was being prepared outside the Ministry of Justice, the Minister, Mariano Cúneo Libarona, posted the following on X: “We will include in the Extraordinary Sessions a bill to increase the penalty for those who intentionally start fires, eliminating the possibility of release on bail. Terrorists disguised as Mapuche set fire to our Patagonia to extort the Government and demand privileges. They will pay behind bars.”

We will include in the Extraordinary Sessions a bill to increase the penalty for those who intentionally start fires, eliminating the possibility of early release.

Terrorists disguised as Mapuche set fire to our Patagonia to extort the Government and demand… pic.twitter.com/cTBPo3ib1p

— Mariano Cúneo Libarona (@m_cuneolibarona) February 11, 2025

Security Minister Patricia Bullrich directly accused Victoria of being an "arsonist, terrorist, and pseudo-Mapuche." "They set Patagonia ablaze, believing themselves to be above the law," she stated on her social media account, but linked her to Nahuelpan. "Arsonists are not activists. They are criminals. And we will arrest them one by one. Law and order," Bullrich wrote, invoking the law that the State itself ignores. Victoria spent hours detained and held incommunicado, without knowing what she was accused of. And the raids did not follow proper protocols. 

“A fabricated story to frame her for the fires”

In Esquel, members of the raided communities and radio station held a press conference outside the courthouse before the hearing. “Victoria Núñez was unjustly brought here, she is being held, and a fabricated story is being concocted to frame her for the fires that occurred at the Amancay ranch, where she had absolutely no involvement,” said Moira Millán. “The State’s inaction, lack of funding, and inadequate response to combat the fires have led to this spectacle, which is causing pain and outrage, a spectacle that erodes the foundations of democracy .”

Furthermore, she denounced the planting of weapons in the community, and stated that in the search for “ideological and terrorist elements” “as during the dictatorship,” books were confiscated, including Black Feminism by the feminist and anti-racist philosopher Angela Davis, as well as Terricide, authored by Millán. She also recalled that members of the community were beaten, thrown to the ground, and bound during the raid.

Millán made a plea to society: “I want to tell the country: this is not an isolated case. If you normalize what happened to the Pu Lof, it will be the prelude to a dictatorship that will be established for all Argentinians. Today they are coming for our lives and our safety. Victoria is being held illegally; all the elements are fabricated. It's a story concocted on Facebook to keep our sister detained. Today they are coming for my library, for my books. What will they do tomorrow? Will they raid everyone who has books like Hitler did? Go out, protest, let's put a stop to this madness, now. Tomorrow may be too late.”. 

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Fake Mapuche terrorist

At Torres's press conference, where he dedicated himself to defaming the Mapuche people, the governor of Chubut celebrated that "in three months, our prosecutors in the ordinary courts of Chubut have done more than the federal courts have in the last 10 years." The governor never misses an opportunity to denounce the slowness of the judiciary in resolving his demands.

Torres, trampling on the principle of innocence and in an attempt to confuse, asked "especially the media in Buenos Aires, that we not confuse when speaking of native peoples and pseudo-native peoples ; these criminals to whom we refer have nothing to do with the Mapuche Tehuelche communities that live together in harmony in the province."

“ The argument of “fake Mapuche terrorist” is as exhausted as the possibility that indigenous peoples in general are capable of destroying the place where they live ,” expressed the Movement of Indigenous Women and Diversities for Good Living, which had called the conference in front of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in Caba earlier that morning.

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There, along with about twenty other people, they demanded the release of Victoria and Nicolás Heredia, accused of starting the fires in El Bolsón (Río Negro). They also raised questions about the silence maintained for several days by the provincial and national governments regarding the fires, a silence they broke two days ago with the operation against the Mapuche communities. “Who is putting out the fires? Are there terrorists in Entre Ríos? In Catamarca? In San Luis? Are there fake Mapuche terrorists in Corrientes, like Ignacio Torres? The setup they orchestrated was premeditated and clumsy,” the Movement stated. Many people have said it before, including Moira Millán, in another summer, in the face of other fires: “The Mapuche people would never set fire to the forests.”.