The Brazilian government has announced that it will send around 200 soldiers to land occupied by indigenous groups in Mato Grosso do Sul.

The move comes after a member of the Terena indigenous group was killed whilst police attempted to evict the occupiers last week. The groups believe the land belongs to their indigenous ancestral territory, which is currently recognised as the property of local politician, Ricardo Bacha, and have occupied the land for over two weeks.

Mato Grosso do Sul by Jenny Mackness on Flickr

The announcement from the government detailed how the soldiers were being sent to the farm in order to prevent the problem from escalating. Brazil’s Justice minister Jose Cardozo said: “We’re not going to put out the flames by pouring alcohol on the bonfire…we must avoid radicalising a situation that goes back a long way in Brazilian history.”

Cardozo also announced that he would be travelling to Mato Grosso do Sul in order to oversee the deployment of soldiers, and that the soldiers from the National Force were being sent in order to support the local police force.

It was revealed that the call for soldier interception came from the governor of Mato Grosso do Sol, André Puccinelli, and that soldiers have been steadily deployed by land and air to the area since Tuesday.

Dozens of other indigenous groups have marched around Mato Grosso do Sul in the Sidronlandia region in support of the Terena people. A date has not been set for the withdrawal of the soldiers.

The Qom indigenous community from the province of Formosa were granted a hearing with the Supreme Court yesterday. After on-going issues with the provincial government over land rights, the commitment was made to introduce the Supreme Court as a “referee” and “mediator”.

Qom leader Felix Diaz (Photo: Patricio Guillamón)

The provincial government were joined by the National Parks Management and the National Institute for Indigenous Affairs in the pledge to the Supreme Court to accelerate proceedings in order to delineate and officially determine the community’s ancestral land rights. The community have been claiming the land for many years, and the granting of a hearing marks a significant step in their struggle to reclaim it.

The hearing saw an agreement that land studies and surveys would be conducted as soon as possible to determine the territorial boundaries of land which the Qom community has been claiming for years. The Supreme Court will decide whether the Qom’s claim over 5,187 hectares in Formosa is valid and should officially be listed as indigenous land, or whether it in fact belongs to the provincial or federal government.

Félix Díaz, head of the Qom community, asked President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to “contribute to the ending of this conflict by encouraging the claim of indigenous peoples through the application of law 26,160, and favour the results of the land survey.”

The hearing also saw important aspects agreed upon, such as the decision to hold meetings between official bodies later in the year to discuss climate issues and the potential flooding of the Pilcomayo river that frames the disputed territories.

As the hearing was taking place in Buenos Aires yesterday, in the province of Chaco -which borders Formosa- a Qom man, Florentín Díaz, was killed. His death has been met with accusations that it was caused by the violent police eviction of protesting communities. The government minister of Chaco stated that the official cause of death according to both the police and hospital is from “a traffic accident”, while the Institute for Chaco Aboriginals maintains that the death occurred at the hands of the police when Díaz escaped from their hold, and say that his son was killed alongside him. The death occurred during a time of extreme political and police crackdown on protesters from 13 different communities, including the Qom, who were protesting and created a road block. The police dismantlement of the protest left 50 injured, and over 100 people arrested.

The Qom communities reside principally in the Chaco, Formosa, and Sante Fe provinces of Argentina.

Former Guatemalan dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt. (Photo: Wikipedia)

In an historic verdict, former Guatemalan dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt has been found guilty of genocide and sentenced to 50 years in prison for genocide and a further 30 for crimes against humanity. The verdict sets a global precedent, as Ríos Montt was the first former leader to be tried for genocide in a national court.

In reading her verdict, Judge Yassmin Barrios said: “We are completely convinced that in this case, elements demonstrating the intent to commit genocide have been proven … Ríos Montt, the head of state, knew exactly what was happening. He did nothing to stop it.”

Ríos Montt’s co-defendant and former head of military intelligence, José Mauricio Rodriguez Sánchez, was acquitted.

Ríos Montt came to power following a coup in 1982, during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war, in which an estimated 200,000 people, mostly of indigenous descent, were killed or disappeared.

For background on the case, see Avery Kelly’s report from 8th May 2013.

A music sheet with the national anthem of Argentina. (Photo: Wikipedia)

As part of the 200th anniversary of the Argentine national anthem tomorrow, an initiative headed by Jorge Ceballos of the leftist Libres del Sur party proposes changing its text to recognise the indigenous population of Argentina.

“It is necessary to pay adequate recognition and tribute to the indigenous peoples, whose spilt blood is part of the foundations of our state. From the successive ‘Desert Conquests’ to the current government, public policies regarding indigenous people were of extermination, exclusion and, nowadays, clientelism. You only need to look at the situation of the Qom in Formosa,” Ceballo explained.

Cebolla wants to include a quatrain that he wrote in the anthem, which recognises “the Inca rebellion” and “symbolises the struggle of the indigenous people against the oppressor.” You can read the proposed quatrain here.

On 11th May 1813 the anthem written by the politician, poet and former president Alejandro Vicente López y Planes was approved as the “sole national march”. President Julio Argentino Roca removed several of its strong anti-Spanish verses in 1900 in order to acknowledge good relations with Spain and a growing number of Spanish immigrants living in Argentina.

Military police confronts protestors at Belo Monte Dam. (Photo: International Rivers)

A protest by more than 200 indigenous people to stop the construction of a hydroelectric dam in the Brazilian Amazon has ended after the government refused to meet protesters demands.

Indigenous leaders from the Amazon rainforest expressed their “disgust with federal leaders” and vowed to keep fighting after claiming the Belo Monte power plant will damage the environment and rivers within their territory.

The 11,233-MW plant is to be built on the Xingu River in Brazil’s northern Pará state. Local indigenous groups, including the Munduruku, Juruna, and Kaypo, have demanded the immediate suspension of all works stating that environmental studies show potential damage to valuable rivers including the Tapajos and Teles Pires.

The dam, due to be the world’s third largest, will divert 80% of the Xingu River’s flow, affecting a large area of rainforest.

Protesters sent a document to the government demanding that they be advised on any developments that take place, given the potentially damaging effects of the plant. However, Brazil’s General Secretary, Gilberto Carvalho, says the government will not bow to their demands.

President of the Pusuru Association, Cândido Munduruku, said that the indigenous people “will continue to struggle against the installation regardless of the government’s plans.”

Original article courtesy of Agencia Pulsar.

Thousands protest the impeachment of Fernando Lugo (photo courtesy of anticapitalistes.net)

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an autonomous organ of the Organisation of American States (OAS), held a hearing on the “general situation of human rights in Paraguay” in Washington, US, on Friday and various Paraguayan organisations brought grievances to address.

Among the most important issues presented were the Curuguaty Massacre of last June and the so-called ‘parliamentary coup’ against Fernando Lugo last year. The organisations demanded that the commission urge Paraguayan state investigation into the allegations of torture in the Curuguaty incident.

They also asked for clarification regarding the procedure for the seizure of lands belonging to the Cuyabia indigenous community. The same request was made on the continuous felling of the Ayoreo Totobiegosode Natural and Cultural Heritage Site.

The organisations alerted the Commission to the recent murders of three farming leaders. They also asked them to help get the threats against human rights advocates in the country under control.

The Commission received the complaints of the Human Rights Coordination of Paraguay, the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defence of Women’s Rights, the Peace and Justice Coordination of Paraguay, and Rural and Indigenous Women Workers of Paraguay, among others.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the AMARC-ALC news agency.

In the foothills of the Andes some 2000km north west of Buenos Aires, the city of Salta, with it’s colonial architecture and sublime natural surroundings, is sometimes described as ‘sophisticated’. This does not refer to the local infrastructure (potholed roads, slow internet, and just one functioning railway), its mainly agricultural economy, and not even its considerable range of adventure and wine tourism options.

Salta, Argentina (by André-Batista, on Flickr)

Salta’s sophisticated side is best reflected in its vibrant arts scene, which provides a fascinating insight into the history and culture of Argentina’s north west. From ancient textiles to colonial religious iconography, 19th century landscapes, the Wichi naïve movement, and video installations and photomontages from around the country, Salta offers a vast spectrum of delights for art lovers, both historical and contemporary.

If you arrive in Salta by plane, your first experience of salteño art will be at the airport, where you might spot the exhibition of local paintings, photographs or sculptures to the side of the escalators that ascend to departures. And while you might have heard of Salta referred to as the ‘cradle of Argentine folklore’, you’d be forgiven for not knowing that Salta is also home to a world-class symphony orchestra, the result of a successful strategy several years ago of recruiting Eastern Europeans, virtuoso trained in the communist era, to play alongside and mentor local musicians.

Traditional and Fine Art

Salta’s Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) moved to its current premises in 2008, and now boasts over 1000m2 of exhibition space arranged over two floors. There are different areas dedicated to pre-Columbian art, religious iconography of the 17th and 18th centuries, and 19th and 20th century art. About two thirds of the gallery is devoted to the permanent collection, with the remainder housing temporary installations, including art on loan from galleries in Buenos Aires. The majority of the permanent collection is by local artists, although there are also a few 19th century European works, and paintings from the Cusco and Potosi movements of the 18th century.

View of the city of Salta from the top of Cerro San Bernardo by Carlo Penutti

Notable historical works include the ‘View of the city of Salta from the top of Cerro San Bernardo’, a mid-nineteenth century oil landscape by Italian artist Carlo Penutti, fascinating also because you can ascend the San Bernardo hill by cable car today to experience the same view, and a contemporary painting of local Independence War hero General Guemes.

The temporary collections are often modern art, and feature installations and paintings by some of Argentina’s most celebrated contemporary artists. Currently on display, alongside paintings on loan from the Buenos Aires Museum of Contemporary Art, is a selection of textiles by local Salteño artist Carlos Garcia Bes, who creates modern images in the traditional indigenous local medium of tapestry.

Another collection of early 19th century portraits is on display in the Museo Historico de Norte (Northern History Museum), in the Plaza 9 de Julio, depicting characters from the prominent local families of the time of Argentine independence, alongside various military and domestic objects from the same era. Most of these families remain influential in Salta today.

Indigenous Art

Thanks to it’s majority indigenous population, Salta is also home to the most developed and thriving indigenous art scene in the country.

Pajcha, the Museo de Arte Etnico Americano (Museum of Ethnic American Art), one of Salta’s hidden treasures, houses the private collection of a local anthropologist. The collection is arranged to showcase the evolution of the three main mediums of indigenous art (textiles, sculpture, and painting), with historical artefacts and works on display alongside contemporary ones. Thus 1500 year old textiles are situated next to modern ones, illustrating how local traditions have survived the dramatic upheavals of the intervening centuries intact.

Textiles at Pajcha, the Museo de Arte Etnico Americano in Salta

None of the pre-Columbian American cultures invented writing, and neither did they paint besides decorating objects such as pottery, and as such religious iconography developed under the instruction of the Dominican and Jesuit priests that followed the conquistadors to the New World is the earliest example of indigenous paintings.

In Pajcha there are 18th century religious paintings from the north of the province, inspired by the Potosi and Lake Titicaca schools, that show religious scenes whose familiar Biblical characters have native American faces. There is also a painting from the famous Cuzco School, depicting a conquistador-angel, and photos of notable sculptures from the churches of the Humahuaca Valley in Juyjuy province to the north of Salta, historically on the trade route to Peru, again with protagonists with indigenous faces.

It was in the 20th century that local indigenous people began to paint for its own sake, depicting their environment and daily life. The Wichi tribe from the Chaco jungle region, a few hours drive to the east of the city, with the encouragement and support of the SIWOK foundation and the Anglican Diocese of Northern Argentina, have in particular thrived artistically, and have developed a unique style, vivid, colourful and naïve, depicting life in the jungle. Alec Deane, an Anglo-Argentine resident of Salta, founded the SIWOK Foundation in the late 1970s to help the Wichi people adapt to the modernity that was encroaching on their traditional way of life. He initially established a wood carving workshop to nurture one of their traditional art forms so as to provide them with an income, and from these humble beginnings, as Alec told their story and distributed their work internationally, the Wichi painting movement grew. The most famous artists from the movement are brother and sister Litania and Reinaldo Prado, and some of their work in on display in Pajcha.

Peruvian Coral Statues (Photo via Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña)

The Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña (Museum of High Mountain Archaeology) in the Plaza 9 de Julio contains the mummified remains of several children discovered in 1999 that were left on a nearby mountain peak as an offering by the Incas, and were preserved by the cold and lack of oxygen at the high altitude. With them were left various precious objects, such as textiles, sculptures and jewellery, which are also all perfectly preserved. These provide a fascinating glimpse of not only 15th century Incan art and culture, but also of the scale and interconnectedness of pre-Hispanic South America. The artefacts include gold figurines from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, and coral jewellery from the northern coast of Peru.

Modern Art

For modern art lovers, besides the collections in the Museo de Bellas Artes, the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (Contemporary Art Museum), on a corner of the Plaza 9 de Julio, houses several temporary exhibitions. The standard is high, and the work on display is a mix of that by local artists and others from around the country. There are currently installations by Soledad Videla, a painter from Córdoba, and Julieta Anaut, who creates large photo-montages with mythical themes, alongside a study of Wichi life, past and present, by a collaboration of both Wichi and European-descended photographers and artists, including photos, paintings, and videos.

'Santuario Dorado Fauna Latente' by Julieta Anaut

Salta’s Art Museums

Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) Av.Belgrano 992, 0387 422 1745, http://www.culturasalta.gov.ar/content/view/4481/446/

Pajcha, Museo de Arte Etnico Americano (Museum of Ethnic American Art) 20 de Febrero 831, 0387 422 9417, http://www.museopajchasalta.com.ar/

Museo historico del norte (Northern History Museum) Caseros 541, 0387 421 5340, http://www.museonor.gov.ar/

Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña (Museum of High Mountain Archaeology) Mitre 77, 0387 4370591, http://www.maam.gob.ar/

Museo de arte contemporaneo (Contemporary Art Museum) Zuviria 90, 0387 437 3036, http://www.macsaltamuseo.org/

Hugo Lesser is based in Salta in north west Argentina. He is the founder of Estados (www.estados.co.uk), which offers beautiful handmade Argentine leather goods in the UK.

Indigenous Mapuche community leaders convened Wednesday in Temuco, in the Araucanía region of southern Chile, to discuss the on-going conflict with the government and local agricultural and forestry interests in the area. They also announced that they will demand the right to self-determination.

Community leader Aucán Huilcamán welcomed participants to the summit, which took place on the national monument Cerro Ñielol. “Those of us here […] have arrived in a spirit of dialogue to search for solutions that affect both the Mapuche and Chilean peoples”, he said.

Huilcamán announced that indigenous groups will continue their dialogue with the government, and expressed hope that Chilean society would ask forgiveness from the Mapuche people for the invasion of their territories and historic injustices dating back nearly 500 years. He highlighted this as a fundamental starting point to establishing a “just and enduring” relationship between both parties.

In addition to the right to self-determination (essentially, self-governance) extending from the Biobío region southward to Chilean Patagonia, Mapuche leaders announced that they would seek monetary compensation from the government as well as the return of ancestral lands. They also called for the creation of a government commission to review treaties signed by the government and indigenous communities.

Furthermore, Huilcamán and others took the opportunity to reject language used by the government that equates Mapuche organisations with terrorist groups, and denounced both the militarisation of the area and the implementation of the Pinochet-era Anti-Terrorist Law.

Tensions have risen drastically in the Araucanía region, ancestral home of the Mapuche people, in recent weeks. Both Chilean landowners and indigenous sites such as schools have been the targets of incendiary attacks.

Last week, Minister of the Presidency Cristian Larroulet stated that certain Mapuche groups had ties to the Colombian guerrilla organisation FARC, a claim which was later retracted by Interior Minister Andrés Chadwick.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, an AMARC-ALC news agency.

Bolivian indigenous groups are protesting the government’s plans to build a road through the TIPNIS National Park meanwhile the government claims that 80% of the indigenous population supports the construction.

“The Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos road project isn’t going to pass through the TIPNIS,” said indigenous leader Fernardo Vargas. “As long as we are alive and in defense of our habitat, the road will not go through the TIPNIS, it will pass through somewhere else.”

Vargas explained that there is a “global strategic alliance forming with indigenous people in Brazil and Ecuador to join forces against the violation of human rights, environment and biodiversity.”

“Throughout the continent, people are trampling on indigenous rights, territories and environment,” he said.

Vargas did not rule out the possibility of an international march to Washington D.C. where the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) headquarters is located. The Bolivian indigenous groups are preparing a petition to the IACHR.

“We want to show the government that we are not alone,” he said.

The Bolivian government conducted a consultation with the indigenous groups of TIPNIS announcing that the road’s construction is “green” and will include bridges that pass above the trees. Local and international groups are questioning the reports.

A commission of the Catholic Church and a human rights NGO evaluated the report and received complaints about irregularities in the indigenous consultation.

Defender of the Pueblo, Rolando Villena, said “The query was made unilaterally, without coordination and support of indigenous nations and only from an authoritarian perspective.”

President Evo Morales has been trying to resolve issues with the indigenous population over construction in TIPNIS National Park since the beginning of this year.

The Chilean Senate passed a new Fisheries Act today that is widely rejected by artisan fisherman who argue that the government wants to hand the fishing industry over to private hands and create a domain.

“It is a huge blow to national heritage,” said Senator Guio Girardi, opposing the law.

The law was passed after intense debates and protests from fisherman but resulted in 24 votes in favor and 4 against. A pact was made between Christian Democrats and the Socialist Party. The vote began on 11 November but analysis was extended to 10 Senate sessions.

The most controversial part of the law is the duration of fishing licenses which critics consider part of the government’s plan to create a private fishing domain.

Now the law will be passed to the House of Representatives which months ago adopted a first version of the law with 60 votes in favor and 42 against.

In recent days, Senators Guio Girardi, Engenio Tuma and Alejandro Navarro said that if the law is approved they will go to the Constitutional Court and reach out to international organizations to complain.

“It is based on arguments that do not correspond with reality,” Girardi said. “It creates a profound problem of exploitation”.

The National Federation of Fisherman, which has 120,000 members, has serious complaints about the law including its dismissal of trawl fishing and respect of nautical mile boundries.

Indigenous civil organizations and fishermen oppose the law while the Executive government claims it is necessary to provide sustainability to the sector.