«It is a step gained although it generated a lot of wear and tear. There is no eviction and there is a dismissal, but the underlying land conflict is not resolved«. In this way, Mirta Ñancunao, a member of the Lof Las Huaytekas, referred to the dismissal of her in the usurpation case initiated by the forestry businessman José Luis Zilberberg.
In the judicial hearing that was held via zoom, the Bariloche judge decided not to allow the conversion of the public action into a private one and rejected the verification and eviction measure requested by the plaintiff lawyer Fernando Díaz Cantón.
The Las Huaytekas community is located in the El Foyel area, 30 kilometers from El Bolsón and 90 from Bariloche. The territorial conflict has been going on for many years.
«This comes from the 70s, when a forest colonization plan was launched to plant pines and They stripped many people of their territories to make way for this type of plantations“Ñancunao told BLACK RIVER.
Years later, he said, The Province gave 200 hectares of public lands to Zilberberg. «They were lands that they had been taking from my family, with the condition that I plant pine trees. In 2008 he was given the ownership title to the community’s lands and a serious conflict began because he began to build a land consortium called Solares de la Comarca, with golf courses, soccer fields and candy stores«, stated Ñancunao.
Back in 2010, the Mapuche community filed a precautionary measure and The court ordered the works to be stopped. «In that place – described the woman –, we have the Huaytekas cypress forest. It is a unique place where there are unique plants and a mall that supplies water to many places and where we do our ceremony. “What they tried to do in 2012 is drain that mallín to supply water to the cabins.”
He added that in 2012, the Rio Negro Legislature investigated the property title and “a ruling caused the State Prosecutor’s Office to request annulment.”
But in 2020 the community was denounced for usurpation, although this week the cause prescribed. From the complaint they asked for the conversion of public action into private action to request forced eviction, but the judge did not grant the request.
«How long have they been in that place?«asked this newspaper. “Four or five generations” was the answer. «Before 1900 there was already the population that gave rise to the subsequent generations that became us.. I was born in ’60, but my family was here long before that. We raise animals, we have firewood and forestry activities. Today the pine trees are invading everything, but they do not authorize us to cut them down,” he said.
When asked about the absence of claims at the time of the transfer of land to the businessman by the government, Ñancunao recalled that «At that time, the legislation that we have today as indigenous peoples did not exist. People did not know how to read or write. Under these conditions, they took away our lands.«.
He assured that, now, the lawsuit will continue through civil jurisdiction with the purpose of “the government restores our territory to us«. «They are leaving aside our rights, especially with this national government. We are at a crossroads, but we will continue fighting. “If our ancestors fought without legislation, even more so now in another era, with more tools,” the woman concluded.
