Argentina: Repression, detention and attempted eviction of indigenous community in Salta

The Company Ingenio y Refinería San Martín del Tabacal S.A., owned by the North-american Seabord Corporation Company, is challenging the ownership of the land of the Guarani indigenous community Iguopeingenda El Algorrobal while destroying crops and forest, burning down the families houses, blocking the exits of the village and threatening the families. On August 5 the company carried out an offensive against the Guarani village. Dozens of private guards paved the way for the troops that destroyed the families’ cultivations. The guards also beat the villagers that had formed a human wall to prevent the destruction. At evening fall the police allowed the guards to act with impunity, brutally beating elders, women and children. The guards themselves then filed a complaint to the police, who detained seven persons from the community without written order.  

This situation of repression, attempted eviction and illegal detention constitutes violations of human rights, particularly the human right to feed one self. It is very important to pressurise the Argentinean authorities to take urgent measures to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of the Guarani indigenous community Iguopeingena El Algorrobal. Please send letters to the President of Argentina, Dr. Néstor Kirchner, with a copy to the governour of the Salta Province, Dr. Juan Carlos Romero. Please, inform as well the Guarani indigenous community.