Two men dressed in paisano stormed on Sunday night in the Mapuche community of Quemquemtreu, in the province of Río Negro, and killed Elias Garay, 29, for a shot in the head. Gonzalo Cabrera was seriously injured and has been surgically treated for two shots in the stomach. The two young people, who were fighting to recover their lands, had been besieged since last September, so they have limited their access.
The head of the Mapuche coordinator of Tehuelch, Orlando Carriqueo, has denounced that the police have intervened in the attack: “We believe it has been a policeman, because for 55 days the community has been under siege and no one can enter the territory without their permission; food cannot enter either.” Carrion explained to the radio Futurock in Buenos Aires that until now it has been "impossible" to pass police control, let alone with weapons: “They have been police officers or adapted with them to let them in.”
Carriqueo has held Garay's murder accountable to the governor of Río Negro, Anabela Carreras, for militarizing the territory and to the Argentine Head of State, Alberto Fernández, for not acting in defense of the Mapuches.
The death of the rock at the Lof Quemtrew is responsible for the provincial government of @ArabelaCarreras who refuses to dialogue with the community and has the retenes where no one else enters, with weapons.
— Orlando Carriqueo (@o_carriqueo) November 22, 2021
Racing has denied that the attack was perpetrated by the police and has ensured that the murderers have been "clandestine hunters", who have ensured that the shooting has taken place due to a dispute with the Mapuche, he said. The Mapuches have denied this version.
Associations for the defense of human rights and the defense of the Mapuche people have demonstrated in several Argentine localities in protest of the murder. This week, the Senate has decided to extend for four years the law prohibiting the expulsion of the Mapuche from their lands, but the indigenous people have received the decision with mistrust, as it had not so far been complied with.
One of the main conflicts of Chilean President Gabriel Boric since the beginning of his mandate has been the conflict in the territory of Araucania in the south. In recent years, the struggle between the Mapuches and the Chilean state, among others, for land ownership has... [+]