Opposition deputy Juan Grabois condemned statements by ruling senator Patricia Bullrich linking the fires in Patagonia to Mapuche communities, stating that it is "another smoke screen to cover up the real culprits and divert attention from their deliberate inaction." "They destroyed the National Fire Management Service, they mess around while Patagonia burns and starve the firefighters," the social leader said on his social media. And he added: "Meanwhile, the 'killer mob' (in Milei's words) goes out without a single shred of evidence, something clarified by the Chubut Attorney General himself, to go after Mapuche brothers - many of whom are firefighters and none are terrorists - instead of sending the enormous resources he has to fight the fire," he complained. "It's another smoke screen to cover up the real culprits and divert attention from their deliberate inaction. Hold on to the firefighters and volunteers who are doing their part for the country, while this garbage government just says stupid things," he concluded.
"Hours earlier, the former Security Minister had posted on the same social network that 'if the groups that call themselves Mapuche are responsible for these fires, they will pay for them as terrorists.' 'The Mapuche Ancestral Resistance is declared a terrorist organization for its record of arson, violence and ecological disasters,' he added in the tweet that then provoked Grabois's response.
