US multinational installs controls positions in indigenous territory
Por translation: mark - Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004 at 2:15 PM

20th of October 2004 LEADERS OF THE VICTIMS IN BUENOS AIRES Since September the sugar business Ingenio Tabacal, property of Seabord Corporation, has prevented a guaraní community from freely accessing lands that are vital for their subsistence in the Salta region of Orán. The squads are under the charge of the private security group Search, also from the US.

The recent restrictions to enter to La Loma, an area of 5000 hectares used daily for harvesting firewood and medicinal plants, motivated a new accusation (denuncia) from the Indigenous Guaraní Community El Tabacal of the Hipólito Irigoyen area. Two representatives from the community travelled to Buenos Aires, invited to participate in the opening of the Professorship (Cátedra) on Indigenous Rights of the University of Morón and they took advantage of the opportunity to denounce their situation before national representatives, official agencies and the press.

Mónica Romero - president of the community - and Haidee Cuñandipa - vice president - explained to Indymedia that the impediments to entering the lands began on September 4th, when personnel from the Ingenio Tabacal knocked down bridges that gave access to La Loma and built earth walls. Just a few hours before a delegation of national representatives had left who had travelled to the region to verify the constant violations of indigenous rights.

Not content with the previous, the executives of the sugar company ordered private security, under the charge of the Search group, the installation of control positions and the permanent patrolling of the territory. The only possibility of accessing the lands would be to sign documents possessed by political leaders (punteros politicos) connected to the IngenioTabacal - according to the demands of the guards - although the content itself is unknown.

The representatives of the community also announced that the police station of the city have refused to receive the accusations, until the intervention of representatives from Buenos Aires.

It is not the first accusation that has been made against Search in Orán. On August 5th the guards of the security company attacked members of the Río Blanco Banda Sur guaraní community with sticks and machetes, causing Benjamín Flores - an indigenous man of 57 years - to be hospitalised for a week.
In turn, the Ingenio Tabacal established - with the complicity of the local political power - a campaign of intimidation and persecusion which included arbitrary detentions against indigenous leaders and journalists, as well as judicial accusations of those who not even priests of the Catholic Church could saved. The Sindicato del Azúcar (Sugar Union) withdrew advertising support for the Hipólito Irigoyen newspaper 'La Opción' for reporting the conflicts, as reported on Monday by the Agencia de Noticias del Norte Argentino COPENOA.

Genealogy of the conflict

The El Tabacal Community is made up of more than 120 families who live in different settlements in Hipólito Irigoyen. Decades ago they had their homes and cultivations in La Loma, but they were progressively expelled by the Ingenio Tabacal. The indigenous people continued using the lands for subsistence and to visit the cemeteries there.

In September 2003, prompted by the awful living conditions in the settlements of Hipólito Irigoyen, the members of the community began to build homes again in La Loma. The Ingenio Tabacal accused them of of usurpation and on the 16th of the same month the community members were evicted by the Guardía de Infantería without any judicial order. The operation was carried out at night, ordered presumably by a telephone call from judge Oscar Blanco, and culminated with 22 people being detained and processed.

According to the community representatives in Buenos Aires, the national government promised the expropriation of the lands in December 2003, but later took a step back and offered to open a table of negotiation with the business, which still hasn’t yielded any results.

(*) For contacts in Buenos Aires call 42092026 / 42183627 / 1556177020.

Report: Pablo Indian Photo: Gustavo Mujica

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