With Mapuche flags on one side and Argentine flags on the other, the two marches through the Lanín volcano in San Martin de los Andes. The mayor of the Lanín National Park joined the Mapuche march. It was after the director of that organization was fired by Minister Juan Cabandié.
The members of the Mapuche Confederation of Neuquén met outside the National Parks Administration and the self-convened neighbors in Plaza San Martín.
The Mapuches pointed out against the repeal of Resolution 484, which made Mapuche “Sacred Site” the most emblematic mountain that Neuquén has. While the neighbors joined the presence to reject the same initiative of the direction of the National Parks Administration commanded until Monday by Lautaro Erratchu.
The Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Juan Cabandié, asked the official to resign after the scandal that caused its publication.
Outside the National Parks Intendancy, representatives of different communities that make up the Mapuche Confederation of Neuquén gathered dressed in traditional clothes, kultrunes (musical percussion instruments used in rituals) and carrying Mapuche flags and posters that read: “For the reaffirmation of the declaration of a sacred site.
The mayor of the Lanín National Park herself was present at this act, thanking the communities for their presence.
“We will continue working on the planning and care of natural resources in a participatory management and listening and to continue building this path, this co-management policy with each one of my colleagues in the park, for which I thank them, which does so much good for the Lanín National Park and for each one of the people in the communities,” said Mansilla, who underlined the dialogue between park officials and the Mapuche.
His intervention in the march was recorded on video and was published on the Confederation account. Mansilla is observed relaxed and very close to the mapuches.
“The communities gather together to invite the Federal and Provincial State to join in this challenge of advancing to a civilizing project, which ceases to have as the only economic matrix the destruction of the earth and a suicidal career for the quick win. We are already suffering the consequences of that wrong policy, it is not a futuristic threat or a science fiction movie. And we need statesmen who do not think in the short term or taking care of their skin or momentary chair,” the Confederation said in a statement.
“It was a good march, it’s a start, we chatted, we drank mate, we shared. Everything was peaceful, although the people in San Martín are still not getting very involved,” said Adolfo “Palito” Gatica, a well-known mountain guide from San Martín de los Andes who participated in the other march.
The neighbors spread photographs taken in the San Martín square of the town in which they are seen smiling next to Argentine flags.
On Thursday, August 4, the National Parks Administration issued resolution 484 by which it recognized the “Lanín-Pijan Mawiza Volcano” as a Sacred Natural Site of the Mapuche People in the Lanín National Park.
One of the first to react was the governor of Neuquén, Omar Gutiérrez, who denounced that it was “an illegitimate and illegal act that involved an outrage against the provincial autonomies.”
Every year the Lanín receives some 5,000 visitors on a tour that is free.
One of the fears of the tourism sector in San Martín de los Andes was that the Mapuche communities would begin to charge admission as they do in other sectors.
Representatives of the communities indicated these days that in Lanín they intended to establish “Mapuche jurisdiction”, “environmental guardians” and sell handicrafts, among other ideas.
Neuquen. Correspondent
PS
The mayor of the Lanín National Park accompanied the Mapuche march in San Martín de los Andes