A statement from that organization circulating on social media indicates that the video and the official communication from the Casa Rosada (Presidential Palace) “affect society as a whole and Native Peoples in particular.”
“They express perverse absurdities that violate national laws and legal provisions of international organizations, such as the UN, OAS, UNESCO, and ILO, which establish respect for cultural diversity and the recognition of rights,” the Argentine Anthropological Society emphasizes.
The executive branch’s message, it maintains, “contains offensive and distorting statements about Indigenous peoples, using outdated categories and conceptualizations that reflect the state racism imposed by the current government and that function as dangerous weapons, justifying colonizing genocide.”
On Sunday afternoon, representatives of Argentine Indigenous peoples such as Opinoa, Epikamba, Llankaj Maki, the Mapuche Tehuelche Parliament of Rio Negro, the Mapuche Confederation of Neuquen, Tinkunaku, and Mocase, among others, staged a protest in front of the National Congress.
Accompanied by social movements and human rights organizations, the protesters demanded the extension of the Territorial Survey Law and respect for the rights of their communities. They also demanded justice for the murder of Elias Garay in Rio Negro.
Members of the Evita Movement, the Union of Workers of the Popular Economy, the Association of Capital State Workers, the Central Workers’ Union of Autonomous Argentina, the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, and Hijos de La Matanza accompanied the representatives of the indigenous peoples at the colorful rally.
