ARGENTINA MINORITY PROFILE
Profile
About 4,000 Guaraní/Mbyá inhabit the north-eastern province of Misiones, near Paraguay and Brazil (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, 2004-5, although other sources have suggested up to 8,000). Most are trilingual (Guaraní, Myba and Spanish). Some in live in rural communities where they farm the little land they have (or migrate to other regions as temporary labourers during harvest time); others have moved to the cities of Salta and Jujuy, often finding work in the textile plants, sawmills or sugar refineries.
There has been little political organisation among Guaraní and Myba communities. Many young Guaraní do not identify themselves as indigenous.
Historical context
Thousands of Guaraní migrated from Bolivia to the north of Argentina during the late nineteenth century, and there was another immigration wave in the 1930s as a result of the Chaco War (1932-1936). Still today there is more Bolivian than Argentine television in this area of the country.
The lack of land titles has been a long-term problem. In 1987 the provincial government – with the participation of indigenous community leaders – passed a relatively progressive law (Law 2435), which gave some degree of autonomy to indigenous peoples. However, in December 1988 new legislation (Law 2727) placed all Guaraní under the direct control of the state. In spite of denunciations by the United Nations, in 1993 the Governor of Misiones was still obliging Guaraní to abandon their lands. In September 1993 hundreds of Guaraní gathered in the provincial capital of Posadas to demand the restitution of Law 2435 and to protest against the destruction of their unique forest ecosystem by logging, mining and tourist interests, and against the construction of a hydroelectric dam on their lands.
Current issues
The lack of land titles is still a major concern for the Myba Guaraní of Misiones; it has led to many protests which have often been harshly repressed. Guaraní organisations – the few that there are – have been involved in debates about bilingual education. There have also been some interesting and controversial arguments regarding cultural relativism, triggered by one man from a Myba Guaraní community refusing to have medical treatment for a serious illness (because it did not occur with his beliefs).
Profile
There are 205,009 Mapuche in Argentina (2010 Census). Since the late-nineteenth century, the unity of the Mapuche nation has been divided by the international boundary with Chile: Argentina is the puel mapu (the eastern land); Chile is the ngulu mapu (the western land). Free access across this frontier is still an important issue of debate today.
Many anthropological and historical studies assert that the Mapuche of Argentina originally came from Chile in the eighteenth century (referred to as the ‘Araucanization of the Pampas’). This has recently been contested, but it means that some Argentinians can question the ‘Argentine-ness’ of the Mapuche.
Mapuche people live all over Argentina (in the provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Chabut, Santa Cruz, Río Negro and Neuquén, as well as in many cities of other provinces) but the majority lives in Neuquén and Río Negro. It is here that the most consequential Mapuche political organizations have emerged.
Today Argentine Mapuche have many of their own organizations, such as the Coordinadora de Organizaciones Mapuches (COM) and Taiñ Kiñegetuam, ‘to return to being one’, in which women, who traditionally play a major role in Mapuche ritual, are prominent.
Historical context
Many Mapuche were killed or forced to flee their communities in the late nineteenth century during the military campaigns led by President Julio Roca (known as the ‘Conquest of the Desert’, 1879). Since then they have lived scattered throughout Argentina, although – as noted above – they mainly live in the provinces of Neuquén and Río Negro.
In Northern Patagonia the state granted official acknowledgement of Mapuche communities’ ownership of rural lands as early as the 1960s, but the lack of legal security, the land’s poor quality, and the communities’ geographic isolation caused many Mapuche to migrate to other regions. Many went to the cities to find work.
Historically, there was little political mobilization among Argentine Mapuche (i.e., organization beyond the community). The first non-traditional Mapuche organizations were formed in the 1970s in the provinces of Neuquén and Rio Negro; the movement became more significant in the mid-1980s during Argentina’s transition to democracy.
In the early 1990s, the Coordinadora de Organizaciones Mapuches (COM) was created with the purpose of uniting and representing rural and urban Mapuche organizations. COM pledged itself to autonomy and self-determination, transforming demands for land into demands for a territory; it was also active in the implementation of educational programmes in the Mapuche language.
Conflict between the Mapuche nation and the state broke out openly in 1995, over indigenous lands in the Pulmari region. Local Mapuche communities were finding it difficult to survive because the Pulmari Interstate Corporation, which controlled the national park, prohibited hunting and gathering and restricted Mapuche people’s movement through the territory. In protest against such restrictions, as well as threats of relocation, several communities occupied the lands; they were forcibly evicted.
Since the mid-1990s, Mapuche mobilisation in Argentina has had an important impact on political debates, particularly at a local/provincial level. The federal government has invested in intercultural/bilingual education centres in Neuquén, as a result of the efforts of the provincial government and campaigns led by Mapuche organizations in the region. In 1997 the state launched the project ‘Mejoramiento de la Calidad de la Educación de los Pueblos Aborigenes’, as part of the National Program for Primary Schools, and COM has managed to set up several Mapuzungun workshops in the provinces of Neuquén and Río Negro.
In July 2008 Mapuche in the southern regions of Chile took steps to formally register a new political party. One of the main goals was to achieve Mapuche self-government and to recreate what they call Wallmapu (Mapuche land) in southern Chile and Argentina where most Mapuche are still concentrated.
Current issues
The Argentine state has updated its legislation on indigenous rights in accordance with international developments, but reports by local indigenous groups and international human rights organizations suggest that the law is rarely translated into practice (particularly when this clashes with private interests and the state’s economic agenda).
Few Mapuche communities have the proper deeds for collective land ownership, and lands described as ‘reservations’ tend to be considered fiscal lands. This has meant that mining, oil and gas developments have been able to take place despite the protests of local communities; the latter complain that provincial authorities, responsible for granting the concessions, do not consider these projects’ impacts on local people. The conflict over land ownership continues to be a major problem today, as do the resource extraction issues.
Land titling is at the root of the problem. For example, according to the Argentinean Constitution, indigenous Mapuche are the legitimate owners of the lands in Patagonia but the majority of Mapuche in Patagonia do not hold legal title to lands inhabited by their pre-colonial ancestors, and this is now regarded as ‘publicly-owned property’. As a result large parcels of indigenous land are frequently sold off to the highest bidder, thus contributing to the underlying conditions for land ownership disputes in that region.
The most controversial saga has involved Benetton Group SA which bought a large amount of land in the Chabut region from the Argentine state several years ago. In 2004 a Mapuche couple occupied 300 hectares of land (officially owned by Benetton, but which they believed was rightfully theirs), and they were removed. This led to a series to high profile protest campaigns and in November 2005 Benetton offered to hand over 7,500 hectares to the province. Mapuche organizations rejected the donation: they claimed Benetton could not donate what it did not rightfully own and that 7,500 hectares was a small amount of land compared to the 900,000 hectares under dispute.
Alarming episodes of violence against Mapuche in Patagonia took place between 2016 and 2018: as mentioned above, Benetton controls large areas of land in Chubut, resulting in clashes with tribal communities living in Cushamen. Mapuche leader Facundo Jones Huala joined the Pu Lof resistance movement in 2016. After blocking a railway and the national route 40 in November 2017, the inhabitants of Cushamen were brutally evicted by police officers in January 2017. Jones Huala was accused of being a terrorist and extradited to Chile in 2018, where he was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of arson. In January 2022, a Chilean appeals court conditionally released Jones Huala, although this was later overturned by the country’s Supreme Court.
In August 2018, security forces evicted Mapuche inhabitants from lands owned by Benetton. In this episode, Argentine activist Santiago Maldonado was missing for 77 days and found dead in unclear circumstances. On the day of Maldonado’s burial, members of the Lakfen Winkul community in Rio Negro were evicted, with officers killing a 22-year-old Mapuche man, Rafael Nahuel. The Ministry for Security stated that Rafael died in a confrontation with the police and had been involved in an attack on police officers, though subsequent investigations cast doubt on the official account.
There has been some important progress made in the area of bilingual/intercultural education, with Mapuche communities and organizations taking an increasingly active role in the methodology and content of teaching. In areas that attract many foreign travellers, such as Bariloche and San Martin, local Mapuche have been able to turn the growing interest in eco-friendly tourism to their advantage, running tours, arranging ‘traditional’ accommodation and meals, selling their art and so forth. There have also been many significant advances with regards to uniting Argentine and Chilean Mapuche organizations. Mapuche organizations currently play an important role in debates about Mapuche political prisoners in Chile.
Profile
According to 2018 data from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INDEC), 10.2 per cent of the population in Argentina has a disability. At present, however, Argentina does not have any data on the specific proportion of minorities and indigenous peoples registered as disabled. The prevalence of registered disabilities varies significantly between different regions: in the region of Cuyo in northern Argentina, composed of three provinces (San Juan, San Luis and Mendoza) and inhabited among others by Mapuche, Diaguita, Huarpe and Ranquel indigenous communities, the proportion of households with at least one member having a disability is 28.7 per cent, compared to 22.1 per cent in Patagonia, where the incidence is lowest.
Historical context
With the passage of Law 22.431, sanctioned and enacted on 16 March 1981, a series of benefits for people with disabilities were put in place such as job and professional training, loans, subsidies, support with school and education and state benefits. In addition, article 20 established public transport free of charge from a person’s home to educational or rehabilitation facilities. It also highlights the need for physical barriers such as pedestrian crossings, stairs and ramps in parks, parking lots and other public spaces to be modified to improve physical accessibility. This was followed in 1997 by Law 24.901, establishing a system of basic welfare and care for persons with disabilities, including diagnosis and medical care. Finally, in 2001 Law 25.504 was passed, allowing the Ministry of Health to award certificates of disability.
Current issues
The lack of specific disaggregated data on persons with disabilities from minorities or indigenous peoples in Argentina continues to pose a key obstacle to effective addressing the specific challenges they face as a result of intersectional discrimination. As a result, many of the inequalities they experience remain invisible.
However, indigenous disability activists have confirmed the specific difficulties they face. This include Pablo Vera, a visually impaired member of the Wichi people who was appointed Director of Indigenous with Disability Affairs in 2019. Vera has testified to the variety of disparities indigenous persons with disabilities face in areas such as health care and the right to education, reinforced by the gap between rural and urban areas. In particular, access to health services is difficult due to the centralization of most services in Buenos Aires, the lack of bilingual staff and broader discrimination. The right to education, on the other hand, is undermined by schools not having the appropriate facilities or bilingual teachers.
An obstacle in Argentina has always been the centralization of all its services in the province of Buenos Aires, especially the capital itself. For indigenous persons with disabilities who do not live in Buenos Aires or other cities, this can make access to specialist hospitals extremely challenging. Travelling from the north or south of Argentina to the capital for medical treatment can be both expensive and time consuming: the journey can take up to eight hours, and many families do not possess the necessary economic resources to undertake it. Indigenous people generally and indigenous persons with disabilities more specifically who attend primary care or local general practitioners, rather than travelling to Buenos Aires, frequently face discrimination and language barriers. Indigenous community members have reported discrimination from health workers and stated that many community members avoid health services as a result.
There is also a correlation between certain health conditions that cause disabilities and chronic impairments with poverty, particularly in rural areas in Argentina inhabited by indigenous peoples. For instance, the Chaco region, home to Wichi and Qom communities, is also the area with the highest prevalence of Mal de Chagas, or chagas disease, in the country. Due to the isolation and poor living conditions of its inhabitants, chagas disease affects a large part of the population, most of whom are indigenous. Chagas disease has a chronic symptomatic phase that can appear years after the initial infection. It can affect the nervous and digestive systems, and the heart. It can also result in neurological disorders such as dementia, cardiomyopathy and weight loss. Without treatment, the disease can be fatal due to the heart condition. During this chronic phase, chagas disease can impair the ability to work or perform everyday activities. In addition, the provinces of Salta, Jujuy and Formosa, home to the Diaguita, Kolla and Wichi and Qom, presented rates of tuberculosis of 47.8, 47 and 39.2 per 100,000 inhabitants –more than double the national average.
Another pressing issue relates to the right to education. Most indigenous children have difficulties accessing schools. In the case of indigenous children with disabilities, discrimination and the lack of appropriate equipment in schools is also a common barrier. Disabilities further exacerbate the discrimination that indigenous students frequently experience, reflected in lower attainment levels. A report launched by the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional in 2019 found that illiteracy rates among indigenous peoples were twice the national average, with higher rates for indigenous women (4.2 per cent) than indigenous men (3.2 per cent). A 2006 education law acknowledged the need to train teachers to overcome the language barrier that indigenous children face at schools, running the National Program of Bilingual Education between 2004 and 2007. Nevertheless, it has become difficult to prepare rural schools to adapt to these changes and the other challenges that indigenous children with disabilities may need.
Another challenge is documentation: only a third of (33.4 per cent) of persons with disabilities in Argentina have a valid certificate of disability. This helps secure access to medical treatments and prosthetics, educational support, free travel on public transport, access to a disability living allowance, exemption from municipal taxes and incentives to buy automobiles. In 2018, Alejandra Frey, who was Director of Policies and Services at the National Agency for Disabilities, stated that one possible reason that so many did not have the certificate was geographic barriers: persons with disabilities living in non-urban areas faced more difficulties in commuting to the cities to apply and be assessed to obtain the necessary documentation. Lack of information about the potential benefits of possessing a certificate may also play a role. For indigenous persons with disabilities, many of whom are already living in rural areas far removed from major towns or cities, language could pose an added barrier if staff are unable to assist indigenous applicants in their mother tongue.
This is particularly true in a context when persons with disabilities from all communities are facing increasing challenges accessing welfare support. For instance, Argentina has a non-contributory pension scheme for people with disabilities in a difficult financial situation to support those who do not receive any other benefits from the state. In June 2017, however, Mauricio Macri´s administration cut 160,000 non-contributory pensions to disabled people. The Ministry of Health and Social Care stated that most of these pensions were not needed by the services users, provoking demonstrations and street protests that forced the government to suspend the measure.
The organization Red por los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad has raised awareness and is currently campaigning to modify the second article of Law 26.130, which states that people of legal age and capacity need to give their consent to sterilization. However, if the person has a disability, the sterilization can be requested by their legal representative and must be authorized by a court, without requiring the person’s consent. This may expose women with disabilities to involuntary sterilizations is against the rights recognized by Argentina when it ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Profile
The majority of the 126,967 (2010 Census) Toba in Argentina (they also live in Paraguay) are based in the provinces of Chaco, Formosa, Salta, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires. They speak their own native language and Spanish.
Some Toba in the Chaco region cultivate small parcels of land; most work on sugar plantations and in the cotton and timber industries, but conditions are poor and often result in debt peonage. Toba in the northern province of Bermejo, however, have successfully reacquired lands previously occupied by a sugar refinery.
Cultural manifestations of a distinctive Toba identity can be found in their music and weavings.
Historical context
Toba had a degree of autonomy until their military defeat in 1920. A reserve was established in 1923 but colonisation of Toba land in the Chaco region continued. Over the next decades their territory was reduced by 25 per cent. Land shortages have forced many Toba to migrate to Buenos Aires and Rosario.
They do not have their own political organizations, but many Toba participate in the Unión de Pequeños Productores Chaqueños (Union of Chaco’s Small Producers). In 2006, the Chaco provincial government’s agreed to give indigenous communities in the region more land titles, following a hunger strike by Toba, Wichi and Mocovi people.
In recent years, Toba communities in the Chaco region have recuperated approximately 30,000 hectares; today they have a reservation of 365,000 hectares officially recognised by the authorities.
Current issues
Despite recent achievements, most Toba in rural areas still live on land without land titles; this is a major problem for them. Many have migrated to the cities of Rosario and Buenos Aires and live in the slums there. Efforts continue to encourage the use and promote the cultural value of the Toba native language.
Since 2010, episodes of police violence have taken place against members of the Toba community. Felix Diaz, a prominent leader of the Qom community in Chaco, led a picket line in November 2010 that closed National Route 86, in protest against the proposed construction of a new university on indigenous land. Police officers violently evicted the protest, resulting in the deaths of Qom activist Roberto Lopez and a police officer. In 2012, the Supreme Court of Justice arranged a public hearing for 7 March 2012 and the accusations against Diaz of resisting the authorities and stealing weapons were dropped.
In May 2020, police officers from Chaco broke into the house of a Qom family, stating that this family had taken part in a protest outside a police station in the city of Fontana, where stones and bottles were allegedly thrown. The officers were unidentified, dressed as civilians and did not have a search warrant. The family was tortured until the early hours of the morning. Similar incidents had been reported against the Washek community at the beginning of April and against residents the Toba neighbourhood.
Toba had a degree of autonomy until their military defeat in 1920. A reserve was established in 1923 but colonisation of Toba land in the Chaco region continued. Over the next decades their territory was reduced by 25 per cent. Land shortages have forced many Toba to migrate to Buenos Aires and Rosario.
They do not have their own political organizations, but many Toba participate in the Unión de Pequeños Productores Chaqueños (Union of Chaco’s Small Producers). In 2006, the Chaco provincial government’s agreed to give indigenous communities in the region more land titles, following a hunger strike by Toba, Wichi and Mocovi people.
In recent years, Toba communities in the Chaco region have recuperated approximately 30,000 hectares; today they have a reservation of 365,000 hectares officially recognised by the authorities.
Despite recent achievements, most Toba in rural areas still live on land without land titles; this is a major problem for them. Many have migrated to the cities of Rosario and Buenos Aires and live in the slums there. Efforts continue to encourage the use and promote the cultural value of the Toba native language.
Since 2010, episodes of police violence have taken place against members of the Toba community. Felix Diaz, a prominent leader of the Qom community in Chaco, led a picket line in November 2010 that closed National Route 86, in protest against the proposed construction of a new university on indigenous land. Police officers violently evicted the protest, resulting in the deaths of Qom activist Roberto Lopez and a police officer. In 2012, the Supreme Court of Justice arranged a public hearing for 7 March 2012 and the accusations against Diaz of resisting the authorities and stealing weapons were dropped.
In May 2020, police officers from Chaco broke into the house of a Qom family, stating that this family had taken part in a protest outside a police station in the city of Fontana, where stones and bottles were allegedly thrown. The officers were unidentified, dressed as civilians and did not have a search warrant. The family was tortured until the early hours of the morning. Similar incidents had been reported against the Washek community at the beginning of April and against residents the Toba neighbourhood.
Profile
Most of the 50,419 (2010 Census) Wichi live in the provinces of Salta, Chaco and Formosa There are also many Wichi in Bolivia and Paraguay.
Traditionally Wichi people are hunter-gatherers, planting gardens and gathering honey as well as fishing. Colonization of traditional lands by settlers has created a vicious circle in which the settlers have forced Wichi into the same situation of urban poverty that the settlers hope to escape.
Historical context
In the late 1980s, contrary to national and international legislation, the provincial government of Salta passed a law that gave settlers a legal right to Wichi land. Subsequently, settlers forbade Wichi to hunt and often took gratuitous violent actions against them.
The non-traditional herding of cattle and goats by settlers on Chaco scrublands has reduced previously fertile grassland to a sandy desert.
During the last three decades Wichi communities have begun to organize together with other indigenous groups in the region. In the early 1990s they won an important legal victory when the authorities recognized that Wichi were the rightful owners of approximately 400,000 hectares in the Chaco province. However, several years after this they had still not been granted the official land title.
Current issues
In August 2006, after several Wichi, Toba and Mocovi people had led a hunger strike of 31 days outside the provincial government buildings, it was agreed (by the provincial government of el Chaco and the Instituto Aborigen Chaqueño) to grant more land titles to local indigenous communities. Authorities also agreed to revise recent sales of fiscal lands to private interests. It remains to be seen whether such agreements are adhered to.
Nevertheless, there seems to have been little progress towards improved food access and better living condition for the children of the Wichi community. Wichi children continue to die of malnutrition or causes linked to the lack of water and food in isolated regions in Salta, one of the poorest regions of the country. At the same time, this region is also affected by deforestation conducted by private businesses taking over their land and limiting their access to food and water. An attorney-general is currently investigating the deaths of a number of Wichi children, apparently of malnutrition, and whether the authorities were culpable of negligence in these deaths. In addition, the Inter- American Commission of Human Rights has also demanded the Argentine government to give an account on specific actions taken to prevent further deaths.
ABOUT ARGENTINA
Main languages: Spanish, indigenous languages
Main religions: Christianity (majority Roman Catholic), Judaism, indigenous religions
Approximately 955,032 people declare themselves to belong to or be a descendant of one of indigenous peoples. These peoples include Mapuche (205,009), Toba (126,967), Guaraní (105,907), Diaguita (67,410), Kolla (65,066), Quechua (55,493), Wichi/Mataco (50,419), Comechingón (34,546), Huarpe (34,279), Tehuelche (27,813), Mocoví (22,439), Pampa (22,020), Aymara (20,822), Ava Guaraní (17,899), Rankulche (14,860), Charrúa (14,649), Atacama (13,936), Mbyá Guaraní (7,379), Omaguaca (6,873), Pilaga (5,137), Tonocote (4,853), Lule (3,721), Tupí Guaraní (3,715), Querandí (3,658), Chané (3,034), Sanavirón (2,871), Ona (2,761), Chorote (2,270), Maimará (1,899), Chulupi (1,100), Vilela (519) and Tapiete (407). They now live mainly on the country’s northern and western fringes. According to the National Census of 2010, 3.7 per cent of the indigenous population is illiterate, only 52.6 per cent have access to healthcare and 89.7 per cent receive a state pension.
Other minorities include Jews, who are largely based in Buenos Aires (200,000, according to the World Jewish Congress), Japanese, Koreans, Welsh and small Arab and Asian populations.
Argentina also has a small but politically aware Afro-Argentine community, living mainly in Buenos Aires, representing 0.4 per cent of the population (149,493). Africans were trafficked as slaves in the late 18th and early 19th centuries: it is believed that between 1777 and 1812 approximately 72,000 Africans arrived in Buenos Aires and Uruguay. The African community heavily influenced Argentina’s culture, cuisine and what would later evolve to be the tango dance genre. Slavery was abolished in 1813, but the African population was decimated during the Argentina war against Paraguay in 1865, where most of the soldiers serving were Africans.
Most of the Japanese immigrants and their descendants (totalling around 76,000) are located in and around Buenos Aires. Their situation within Argentine society is relatively better than that of Koreans and other Asian communities, who face discrimination. The Consejo de Representantes Nikkei, an organization representing the Japanese population of Argentina, was created in 1988.
State violence against indigenous communities has become a pressing issue in Argentina. The transition to democracy has not eradicated the legacy of the country’s years under military rule, in particular the period under the junta between 1976 and 1983, when as many as 30,000 civilians were murdered or disappeared by the regime. Arbitrary violence and abuses by security forces persist to this day, with indigenous communities, migrants and other discriminated groups particularly targeted. Police violence against indigenous communities appeared to worsen during the national lockdown imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with reports suggesting that some officials are justifying incidents as measures to impose compliance with the new restrictions. One documented case involved the torture of a Qom family in May 2020 and Río Negro, where Mapuches have been evicted after mobilizing to claim their land rights over Villa Mascardi.
Violence and evictions also continue to be driven by conflicts over indigenous territory, frequently resulting from development on community land. Although Argentina acknowledges indigenous peoples’ communal land ownership, much of their territory has in practice been sold or allocated to foreign enterprises, without the consent of the affected communities, for the extraction of lithium, the construction of new hydroelectric dams or fracking. In the border area between Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, known as the ‘lithium triangle’, lithium extraction was due to begin in 2021 by a joint multinational government venture. The extraction of lithium particularly affects the area of Salinas Grandes, a region long inhabited by indigenous peoples, and currently home to Kollas and Atakameños who have not given their free, prior and informed consent for the extraction to go ahead. At present, 33 indigenous communities have organized themselves into a union and are demanding that the government initiates a consultation process. The case has prompted the International Commission of Jurists to call on the Argentine government to protect the human rights of the indigenous peoples in question.
Other forms of development also threaten to undermine indigenous land rights. For instance, two new Chinese-funded hydroelectric dams are being constructed in Patagonia in a region inhabited by indigenous communities. The dams could destroy archaeological sites, impact the Perito Moreno glacier and change the course of the Santa Cruz river. In addition, the government is seeking to develop the Vaca Muerta region, an oil and shale gas reservoir. Vaca Muerta is in Campo Maribe, where more than 40 Mapuche communities live. Mapuche residents are claiming legal rights on Campo Maribe now that has become the centre for fracking.
Indigenous communities are increasingly resorting to international rights bodies to protect their rights. In 2020, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued a landmark judgment in the case of the Lhaka Honhat Association on behalf of its members from the Wichí (Mataco), Iyjwaja (Chorote), Komlek (Toba), Niwackle (Chulupí) and Tapy’y (Tapiete) indigenous communities from Salta. The judgment highlights the state’s obligations to protect indigenous peoples’ economic, social and cultural rights under Article 26 of the American Convention on Human Rights.
Indigenous women have been at the forefront of community activism. In October 2019, for instance, women from different communities including Mapuche, Tehuelche and Qom peacefully occupied the Internal Affairs Ministry in Buenos Aires. The women were protesting forced evictions, the militarization of their lands and police violence. They also emphasized the lack of an environmental policy to address the impacts of climate change and how this was impacting particularly on indigenous women.
Other campaigns have sought to address the endemic problem of sexual violence targeting indigenous women and girls. In 2015, a Wichi indigenous girl with disabilities by the name of Juana was raped by eight white men in Alto La Sierra, in the province of Salta. The crime was framed as a practice called ‘chineo’, where criollos (the designation for white men in Argentina) rape indigenous girls as part of a sexual initiation rite. Juana became pregnant after this incident and was delayed the right to an abortion, resulting in her being inducted and giving birth to a seven-month stillborn. Eight men were tried in February 2019 for the crime against Juana; they were all found guilty and sentenced to 17 years of prison. In March 2020, the Indigenous Women’s Movement started a campaign to eradicate this brutal practice. In June 2020, a Mapuche woman, Verónica Huilipán, was appointed head of a unit within the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity tasked with eradicating gender violence against indigenous women.
Governance
Historically, the Argentine state has been unwilling to define a systematic, enduring indigenous federal policy. During the twentieth century state policies swayed from tutelage to integration: they were erratic, continually changing as new governments took power. Between 1912 and 1980 the organisations in charge of indigenous matters received 21 different names and changes of administrative jurisdiction. The first indigenous political organisations (beyond the community) emerged during the 1970s, and became more visible and vocal in the 1980s.
In 1985, as part of the process, Raúl Alfonsín’s government passed a new indigenous law, which stated that indigenous communities should receive sufficient land for their needs and that this land should be protected. It also created the Instituto Nacional de Asuntos Indígenas and allowed for bilingual education. In 1994 the Argentine constitution was amended, recognising for the first time the ‘ethnic and cultural pre-existence of the Argentine indigenous peoples’: it acknowledged the validity of Indian communities’ claims to land; it also guaranteed the right of indigenous peoples to bilingual/intercultural education. Since then, Argentina has ratified the ILO Convention 169 (2000). It also created the Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación, la Xenofobia y Racismo in 1995.
Despite the existence of these constitutional and legal measures designed to protect their rights, indigenous peoples and their lands continue to be threatened by the constant intrusion of investors and private enterprises (encouraged by the state). For this reason, indigenous organisations have been involved in an increasing number of protests in recent years. In 2002 for example, a number of organisations occupied the INAI, denouncing the organisation’s failure to represent indigenous peoples’ interests.
Some past governments have encouraged non-Welsh settlement of the Chubut area; tax incentives brought many non-Welsh enterprises, with whom the still predominantly Welsh agricultural community, which previously functioned as a co-operative, was forced to compete. Break-up of the co-operatives and other community organisations, as well as the lack of Welsh teaching in schools, has meant fewer and fewer people speaking the language. Furthermore, since it is associated with low status Welsh has often been rejected by younger members of the community. However, Welsh people suffer minimal ethnic discrimination and token support is given to demonstrations of ethnicity such as their annual eisteddfod.
In the post-war period Argentina became an international centre for anti-Semitic publications and neo-Nazi activity. During the military dictatorship of 1976-83, a large number of the disappeared were Jews. In the 1990s Carlos Menem’s government appeared committed to combating anti-Semitism. The car bombing of the Jewish Mutual Society of Argentina in 1994, in which 76 people were killed, provoked demonstrations of solidarity with the Jewish community. Just prior to this (1993), a holocaust museum was founded in Buenos Aires to remember the atrocities committed against Jews in the past.
Most of the 50,000 Japanese immigrants (http://www.janm.org/) and their descendants are located in and around Buenos Aires. Japanese assimilation and acculturation has advanced considerably, while Koreans and other Asian groups are subject to the same kind of racial discrimination as indigenous groups. The Consejo de Representantes Nikkei, an organisation representing the Japanese population of Argentina, was created in 1988.
Environment
Argentina is the second largest country in South America. It borders Chile to the west, Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, and Brazil and Uruguay to the east. Indigenous peoples live in many different regions throughout the country; in areas near international borders indigenous organizations proclaim a transnational identity (their own nations having been divided by the frontiers imposed by states in the post-independence era).
History
The territory of modern-day Argentina was predominantly inhabited by two indigenous peoples: Diaguita (in the northwest of the country, close to the Incan empire) and Guaraní further south and to the east. The ruins of Quilmes, once an urban centre inhabited by around 5,000 Diaguita, is testament to the advanced civilization state of their civilization in the pre-Colombian era.
Although Argentina was colonized by Spain, other European countries, including Britain, played an important role in its development after the conquest. Liberal governments of the mid- to late-nineteenth century greatly encouraged European immigration; by 1914 almost 30 per cent of the Argentine population was foreign born (a great number of the immigrants were from Italy).
More than 1,000 Mapuches were killed during the ‘Conquest of the Desert’, a military campaign led by President Julio Roca from the 1870s until 1884. The campaign extended the state’s domain and power beyond Buenos Aires; its goal was to intrude beyond Chile’s borders as well. Many academics and historians claim that this military expedition was in fact a genocide that targeted indigenous and tribal populations inhabiting the Patagonia region. Survivors were held captive: many were forced into servitude and prevented from having children.
Welsh immigration to the Chubut region in Patagonia took place mainly between 1865 and 1914. Historical conflict over linguistic and political autonomy led to an unsuccessful attempt at secession at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Large-scale Jewish immigration between 1890 and 1930 provoked disapproval from the Roman Catholic Church and led to a pogrom during the ‘Tragic Week’ in 1919. Antisemitism among Argentine elites, particularly the armed forces, derived from French right-wing, Falangist, Fascist and Nazi sources.
Afro-Argentines are descendants of the slaves brought from Africa during the colonial period. By the late eighteenth century, slaves and free blacks accounted for approximately 25-30 per cent of the population in Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Tucuman and other cities. Many of them died fighting for Argentina in the Wars of Independence (1810-1816) and the Cisplatine War (1825-1828). Since independence the country’s black population has decreased significantly.
The majority of some 2,000 Japanese who settled in Argentina prior to 1920 were immigrants who had re-emigrated from Brazil, Chile or Peru. Early migrants worked in a variety of occupations as unskilled labourers; they were subsequently employed in laundry and dry-cleaning businesses, or market gardening.
Some past governments encouraged non-Welsh settlement of the Chubut area; tax incentives brought many non-Welsh enterprises, with whom the still predominantly Welsh agricultural community, which previously functioned as a co-operative, was forced to compete. Break-up of the co-operatives and other community organizations, as well as the lack of Welsh teaching in schools, has meant fewer and fewer people speaking the language. Furthermore, since it is associated with low status. Welsh has often been rejected by younger members of the community. However, Welsh people suffer minimal ethnic discrimination and token support is given to demonstrations of ethnicity such as their annual eisteddfod.
In the post- war period, Argentina was ruled by a succession of military dictatorships, including rule by military junta between 1976 and 1983. This period was associated with brutal violence against suspected political opponents or dissidents, with up 30,000 civilians abducted or killed during this period. A disproportionate number were Jewish: one subsequent investigation in the late 1990s found that around 12 per cent of the recorded victims were Jewish, despite making up around 1 percent of the population at the time.
The junta also violently persecuted adults and children with disabilities. In 1979, the Department of Education reset the definition of disability, including a new category of ‘socially disabled’ to signify those who due to their situation or behaviour were not integrating into the ‘normal’ social order.
Adults with physical disabilities were also persecuted, as demonstrated by the case of José Poblete Roa, a wheelchair user and activist for the rights of disabled people. Roa led a group of disabled people within the Peronist Party, fighting for inclusion and better working conditions. Roa, his wife and his eight-month-old daughter were abducted in 1978 and their whereabouts remain unknown.
Indigenous communities were also victims of the junta’s repression. At present, Argentina lacks a proper register of indigenous people who were abducted during 1976-83, but relevant cases such as the abduction of a Mapuche youth called Celestino Aigo testify to the violence of the regime.
The military dictatorship of 1976 laid out the foundations for future conflict with indigenous communities in the north by granting concessions to foreign enterprises to extract lithium. Argentina transitioned to democracy in 1983, after the junta was defeated in the Falklands war in 1982. Some of the key perpetrators were prosecuted and incarcerated in 2003 for crimes against humanity.
In 1989, Carlos Saúl Menem was elected President. His administration was marked by austerity measures that decimated the Argentine working class. Two terrorist attacks against the Jewish community took place during his first term: an explosion at the Israeli embassy in 1992, which killed 22 people, and a car bombing of the Jewish Mutual Society of Argentina in 1994, in which 76 people were killed. These attacks provoked demonstrations of solidarity with the Jewish community. Just prior to this, in 1993, a Holocaust museum was founded in Buenos Aires to commemorate the atrocities committed against Jews in the past.
In 1994, a constitutional reform introduced rights for indigenous and tribal communities in Argentina. It recognized the pre-existence of indigenous peoples, and their right to an education, access to healthcare, ownership of their lands and their cultural identity. It also stipulated a legal consultation for any enterprise or business undertaking development on their territories that could affect their wellbeing or their lands.
Menem’s presidency was followed by Fernando de la Rúa. De la Rúa’s term lasted only one year and ended with a curfew and more than 40 citizens killed in protests. Eduardo Duhalde was interim President from 2001 until 2003, before the Kirchnerite era begun. Néstor Kirchner was elected in 2003, and Cristina Kirchner succeeded him from 2007-11 and 2011-15.
Between 2003 and 2015, there were some improvements for indigenous peoples in Argentina, such as better access to health care and education, but police brutality, hunger and poverty remained significant issues. Mauricio Macri’s administration, from 2015 to 2019, witnessed an escalation of the conflict with indigenous communities, with their activism frequently framed as terrorist activity. Patricia Bullrich, the Security Minister, accused the group Mapuche Ancestral Resistance of being sponsored by dubious sources and engaging in terrorism. Macri was succeeded by Alberto Fernández in 2019. Cristina Kirchner returned to high office as Vice-President, although she is currently facing a corruption trial.
Governance
Historically, the Argentine state has been unwilling to define a systematic, enduring indigenous federal policy. During the twentieth century state policies swayed from tutelage to integration: they were erratic, continually changing as new governments took power. Between 1912 and 1980 the organizations in charge of indigenous matters received 21 different names and changes of administrative jurisdiction. The first indigenous political organizations (beyond the community) emerged during the 1970s and became more visible and vocal in the 1980s.
In 1985, as part of the process, Raúl Alfonsín’s government passed a new indigenous law, which stated that indigenous communities should receive sufficient land for their needs and that this land should be protected. It also created the Instituto Nacional de Asuntos Indígenas (National Institute of Indigenous Affairs, INAI) and allowed for bilingual education. In 1994 the Argentine Constitution was amended, recognising for the first time the ‘ethnic and cultural pre-existence of the Argentine indigenous peoples’: it acknowledged the validity of indigenous communities’ claims to land; it also guaranteed the right of indigenous peoples to bilingual/intercultural education. Since then, Argentina has ratified ILO Convention 169 (2000). It also created the Instituto Nacional contra la Discriminación, la Xenofobia y Racismo (National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, INADI) in 1995.
In 2002 several organizations occupied the INAI, denouncing the organization’s failure to represent indigenous peoples’ interests. Around the same time, during the interim government of Eduardo Duhalde (2001-2), Law 25.607 was passed by Congress, establishing a national campaign to raise awareness on indigenous rights. This was intended to be a federal campaign led by the INAI. In 2010, during the Nestor Kirchner administration, the National Register of Indigenous Organizations was created through Resolution N 328/ 2010, which documents the legal status of any organization within Argentina representing indigenous peoples. The right of indigenous peoples to inhabit their own lands is determined by the 2006 Law N 26.160. This was intended as an emergency provision to suspend evictions on traditionally occupied indigenous territories while obliging the state to survey all existing lands inhabited by indigenous communities. At present, the state has only surveyed 38 per cent of the lands claimed by indigenous, failing in the proper implementation of this law. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has also expressed concerns at the delays in surveying, which at the time of reporting in 2017 had only been concluded in six provinces. Despite the existence of these constitutional and legal measures designed to protect their rights, indigenous peoples and their lands continue to be threatened by the constant intrusion of investors and private enterprises (encouraged by the state). For this reason, indigenous organizations have been involved in an increasing number of protests in recent years.