Chacolinks

Support for the Wichí people of Argentina
Apoyo al pueblo Wichí de Argentina

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News January 2010

John Palmer wins award

We are very proud to announce that Dr John Palmer, Anthropological Advisor to Chacolinks, has been awarded the prestigious Lucy Mair Medal by the Royal Anthropological Institute in London. This is given to 'honour the application of Anthropology to the relief of poverty and distress and to the active recognition of human dignity.' We send our warmest congratulations to him for this well-deserved recognition for his selfless work for the Wichí of the Itiyuro Basin.

Wichí land rights

Wichí land-demarcation procedures have advanced, but with difficulties. The work that was to have been carried out by lawyer Sarah Esper and anthropologist John Palmer was put on hold by the Argentine national government and was only re-authorised towards the end of 2009. Meanwhile, the Salta provincial government took on the task.

To date, the lands of three communities have supposedly been delimited with GPS reference points, but the resulting maps have yet to be seen. Most of Zlaqatahyi territory was mapped in 2001/2002, so it remains to be seen how the two versions – non-governmental and governmental – compare.

Hoktek T'oi village, of its own accord, declined to take part in the new government survey, on the grounds that it has already mapped its lands.

The three communities that agreed to re-map their lands under the Salta government survey were Tonono, Pacará and Chowayuk (Km 12). We are concerned that the Salta provincial government’s survey may not be to their benefit because the government is renowned for its denial of indigenous rights. The individual community titles to which this re-mapping process is leading, do not do justice to the traditional system of land-tenure and land-use. However, if the communities are able to receive recognition of title to at least some of their traditional territory, it may or may not then be possible to address the shortcomings of the survey.

This was taken up with the Argentine Government’s National Institute for Indigenous Affairs (INAI), so the demarcation project (for which John Palmer and Sarah Esper were appointed by the Wichí communities themselves) should start again in 2010. We hope that this may limit the damage done by the Salta government’s involvement in recent months.

Environmental rights

The bulldozers are still at a standstill around the Zlaqatahyi communities as a result of the Argentine Supreme Court’s ruling (in 2008) against deforestation. However, the simultaneous ban on logging has been lifted owing to protests orchestrated by the timber industry.

While the ban was still in place (May-June 2009), loggers resorted to violence against three Zlaqatahyi communities which were endeavouring to ensure that the moratorium be upheld. Roque Miranda, president of Hoktek T'oi’s village council, was wounded in the head by a brick thrown at him by the representative of an urbanized Wichí community.

Meanwhile, Chacolinks’ support for Hoktek T'oi’s longstanding legal battles against violations of environmental law continues to come up against a provincial judiciary that consistently finds in the community’s disfavour. To give a few recent examples:

1) In 2002 the community reported the provincial Department of the Environment to the police for complicity with the company that illegally deforested the land surrounding the village. After seven and a half years, the case has yet to be heard in court, because the two local criminal-law judges have both washed their hands of the matter. In order to break the deadlock, the matter went before the highest court in the province. We have recently heard that two or more of the panel of judges in that court have also stood down, thereby delaying yet further the possibility of a hearing.
2) Among the numerous police reports that Hoktek T'oi has made against illegal logging on its land by non-indigenous townspeople, two are currently in process:

In the first case (dating from 2006), the suspects were cleared of charges in court. Hoktek T’oi has been through two appeal stages (both rejected) and is now asking for the case to be heard by the Supreme Court in Buenos Aires.
The second case relates to the timber that was extracted from community lands last year. The suspects were summoned to appear in court, without the presence of the Wichí’s lawyer (Sarah Esper). Hoktek T’oi challenged this procedural irregularity in May 2009, since when no reply has been forthcoming.

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