By Cartoonist Khali Bendib. Source: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9189
This article reports on an armed attack against members of the Mapuche, an indigenous group in Argentina, and places the event in the historical context needed to understand its impact. On January 10th, 2017, Mapuche members protested the possession of ancestral lands by the global fashion corporation, Benetton. The disputed land is in the Chubut region of Patagonia where armed forces numbering 200 attacked Lof en Resistencia del Departamento de Cushamen, a small Mapuche community of less than 30. Most members, including women and children, were injured and 10 were arrested. These acts directly violate an Argentine law that prohibited the evacuation of indigenous people and possession of their lands until November 2017, as well as other legislation that protect indigenous rights.
Patagonia has experienced a historical influence of multinational corporations and privatization of indigenous land. According to the article, the Argentine military campaign, Conquista del Desierto (Conquest of the Desert) that spanned 1878-1885 killed thousands of indigenous people and forced 14,000 to become servants to achieve its goal of incorporating Patagonian land into the Republic of Argentina. As a reward for aiding this campaign, foreign companies received pieces of Patagonian land. Aside from Benetton, who seized 900,000 hectares of land in 1991 to use for mining, logging, and obtaining petrol and wool, other corporations such as North Face and CNN have also purchased Mapuche land.
Nature forms a central part of Mapuche identity and the seizure of their land represses their freedom. This is particularly devastating when considering that the discrimination that the Mapuche face when they attempt to assimilate; they are poor, used for cheap labor, and considered terrorists by some. The fight to reclaim Mapuche land by groups such as Lof en Resistencia therefore stems in part from Argentine society’s inability to accept them.
The article presents the Mapuche issue as one with deep historical roots that bring up issues of human and indigenous rights. While noting the complexity of solving the issue, (especially when presented with the fact that the high value of the land Benetton owns makes it unlikely for them relinquish it or for the Argentine government to buy it back for the Mapuche) the article takes a stance in support of the Mapuche, given that several of its claims are backed by citations from similar articles that are critical of the dispossession of Mapuche land. The article also provides a link to a petition against the Benetton’s presence in the area, which encourages audience action in defense of the Mapuche. Finally, although most of the sources used are in English, some are in Spanish, and one is in French, which, in a minor way reflects the global relevancy of struggling indigenous people.