Qopiwini

Félix Díaz beside the Argentinian musician Gustavo Cordera in a concert that offer this last for Qopiwini on 1 September 2015.

Qopiwini Lafwetes (Qo.wi.pi.ni. respecting the original typography) is a grouping that includes the aboriginal cultural settlements in the Province of Formosa in Argentina. It encompasses peoples from the Qom, Pilagá, Wichi and Nivaclé ethnic groups of Argentina. Formed at the beginning of 2015. In February 2015 they set up a protest camp at the intersection of Avenues 9 of Julio and Avenue of May to draw attnetion to the repressive actions against the aborigines by the government of Formosa, and collect signatures of citizens supportive to their cause. Included in the camp were some forty representatives of forty-six communities of the Qom, Pilagá, Wichi and Nivaclé villages.[1]

The leader is Félix Díaz, spokesperson (qarashé) of the Qom Potae Napocna Navogoh community. However, the organisation debates the steps to be followed in an assembly.[1]

Antecedents, meetings and assemblies

In 2010 local aboriginal peoples formed a picket on National Route 86 in protest against moves to clear them from their traditional homelands. The Formosa Police responded heavily with violence and two natives were killed and others injured. Following this Félix Díaz began to summon self-governing native assemblies in the province of Formosa between 2014 and 2015, and together with other leaders, instructed regarding the defence of the Rights of the Native Peoples in Argentina. They held five assemblies in different places in the province, and served to stimulate the undertaking of the defence of their rights.[2]

In January 2015, members of the Poate Napocna Navogoh community, went back to cut National Route 86, demanding the cessation of violence and neglect within the community, in addition that the provincial authorities report on the state of the works of infrastructure that has been initiated in the zone, such as houses, hospitals and roads, the date of is completion and details of its distribution. International amnesty stated that the blocking of the road was so that "they claimed their rights and because of the broken promises of the Government" and said, on the repression of 23 November 2010 in a cut to the same route, "This must not happen again". Amnesty requested that the government fulfil the injunction of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights of 2011, that obliges the protection of the integrity of the Qom.[2]

The Consciencia Solidaria NGO was present in the meeting in Cacique Colorado, where it began to debate a possible grouping called Qopiwini. After this meeting it was decided to make the next Assembly in March 2015 in the Community Potae Napocna Navogoh, the community led by Félix Díaz. But this did not materialize.

On the 27th, 28th and 29th May 2015 the First National Summit of the Native Peoples was organised and summoned by Qopiwini in the House of Nazareth, Carlos Calvo 3121, Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. They discussed benchmarks with regard to human rights and resistance facing the civic-military dictatorship. A school-style orange poster written by hand indicates that this is the headquarters of the meeting.[3] Inside the room is wide, there are tens of groups in circles, half inside the room, while the other half is in the garden.[4] There was a presentation to about one hundred delegates and authorities of twenty-five native villages of seventeen provinces, between them Missions, Chaco, Formosa, Salta, Jujuy, Tucumán, San Juan, Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Neuquén and Río Negro.[4] There they gathered representatives of other villages and communities who exchanged experiences of the situations that existed in different territories. On the 29th the conclusions of the meeting were made known and the steps to be followed were established. The final day benefited from the presence of members of the Confederation of Native Nationalities of the Ecuador (CONAIE) and of representatives of human rights organisations.[5] After the summit meeting a number of ethnic leaders marched through the streets of Buenos Aires accompanied by Accompanied by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Pablo Pimental of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights. A small group went to government house to hand in a petition but after a long wait the government declined to receive them.[6]


Foundation of Qopiwini and camp in Buenos Aires

In the face of the lack of answers on the part of the government of Formosa, Félix Díaz decided to go back to camp in the city of Buenos Aires, and as in 2010, it was installed in the intersection of the Avenues 9th of July and Avenue of May. After five months in the camp, a dialogue was established that had little effect Argentine National Gendarmerie accompanied by militants of La Cámpora finally evicted them from there. Díaz affirmed that in four years none of the agreements of the round table hade been realized.[2]

In 2014 there were meetings in Las Lomitas on the 30th and 31st May, in Bartolomé de la Casas on the 18th and 19th July, in Laguna Yema on the 14th and 15th November and in the neighbourhood of Nanqom in Formosa city on the 5th and 6th December. Several communities participated, among them: Pilagá El Perdido, La Linea, and El Simbolar, the Wichi Community of Isla Colón and Saint Martín, the Qom community, Bartolome de las Casas, the Qom community of Potae Napocna Navogoh, the Pilagá community, Rincon Bomba, Oñaidee, and Laq Fasanyie, the Nivaclé Community of Río Muerto, the Wichí community, Pozo del Mortero, the Qom community, Mission Laishi and Nanqom, the Wichi community of Tres Pozos Bazan, the Qom community of Mission Tacaglé, the Wichi community of Lagoon Yema, Rafael Justo, the Pilagá Federation, the Wichi community of El Potrillo and the Wichi community of Las Bolivianas.[2]

Between the 23rd and 24th of January 2015 there was a meeting in the Wichi community of Colorado, in the province of Formosa, where was founded the Organisation of the Native Peoples, Qopiwini Lafwetes, thus, after several assemblies and after arduous debates the unity was attained of all the villages of the province of Formosa.

Following a press conference it was announced that the protest camp would be dismantled on Sunday, December 6 after it became known that on Tuesday, December 1 that Mauricio Macri had won the presidential elections and Díaz could have a meeting with the Secretary of Human Rights, Claudio Avruj, who confirmed that the future government would respond to the requests of indigenous peoples. The other reason the camp was dismantled was the fear of attacks.

On 17 December President Macri received Félix Diaz.[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Cregan, Fionula (June 11, 2015), Summit Brings Together 25 Indigenous Nations For Resistance, Popular Resistance, retrieved Feb 21, 2016
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Camp Qo.Pi.Wi.Ni. 2015 Avenida de Mayo and Avenida 9 de Julio". Conciencia Solidaria ONG Interprovincial. July 7, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  3. ↑ "National Summit of Indigenous Peoples". La Olla TV. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  4. 1 2 Aranda, Darío (2015). "A Cry of Five Centuries". Territories. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ Trentini, Florence (May 29, 2015). "Indigenous Summit in Buenos Aires". Notas, Periodismo Popular. Retrieved February 22, 2016.
  6. ↑ Cregan, Fionula (June 4, 2015), Towards a just, equitable and pluralistic society in harmony with nature, Church World Service, retrieved February 21, 2016
  7. ↑ "President Macri Meets Indigenous Leaders, Promises Dialogue". The Argentina Independent. 18 December 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2016.

External links

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