Cultural Survival Strongly Condemns the Eviction of the Lof Pailako in Argentina

This eviction threatens to remove their deep connection with their land and their social survival, representing the most current action in the procedure of continual harassment, criminalization, and violent threats experienced by the Lof Pailako, similar to those suffered by other Aboriginal communities in Argentina. This physical violence has actually been emphasized by the head of state’s news in December 2024 repealing Regulation 26160 of the Aboriginal Territorial Emergency, which suspended evictions and purchased the surveys of Aboriginal communities’ territories.

Cultural Survival sustains the area’s battle to recoup their genealogical area when faced with racist and institutional violence by the rural and government governments. We also contact the Argentine authorities to immediately stop the eviction of the community and to discontinue the criminalization and mistreatment of the Mapuche Peoples.

The Mapuche Tehuelche community of the Lof Pailako in Chubut, Argentina, are dealing with forced expulsion from their genealogical lands. On Thursday, January 2, 2025, a court official arrived in the neighborhood together with government authorities and workers from Los Alerces National Park to notify of eviction on January 9, “by force” if the community does not vacate voluntarily. This eviction is currently happening through the Esquel Operational System of the Federal Cops.

The legal battle reached a tipping point on December 27, 2024, when government court Otranto licensed the National Parks Agency to carry out the eviction, leaving the area without the possibility of submitting more allures. On top of that, throughout the judicial process, the neighborhood had no right or possibility to defend itself; they can absent evidence to show their genealogical and conventional connection to the region, and the courts ruled just according to what was specified by the National Parks Management. These kinds of actions reveal the prejudice and collusion of the Argentine judiciary with a State that seeks to expel Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral areas.