Argentina - October 2022

Argentina’s federal security forces evicted several Mapuche families from a territory considered sacred by the Indigenous community. Community members had inhabited the areas while demonstrating for better treatment of Indigenous Peoples in the country – part of a long-time struggle by the Mapuche for recognition of their language and cultural heritage, as well as for better economic treatment from the government. The event highlights an escalation in the government’s pressure on the Mapuche community to force them off the lands they claim, as well as the discrimination they continue to face. The operation (ordered by President Alberto Fernández’s government) was widely criticized as arbitrary and as contrary to the Mapuche community's human rights. In protest, Argentina’s minister for women, gender, and diversity, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, resigned and expressed her opposition to the operation. 

Sources: Buenos Aires Times, CNN, Cronista, IACHR, IWGIA, MercoPress, Perild, UN News, Reuters