National Deputy Juan Pablo Luque (Union for the Fatherland-Chubut) stated today that due to the ravaging fires in the south of the country, “we will never again see this area of the mountains as we knew it,” and assured that for the region, “the environmental disaster is tremendous.” Luque, along with other national deputies, presented a bill that, according to the Argentine News Agency, declares a “Fire, Environmental, and Socioeconomic Emergency in Patagonia” due to the severity of the forest fires affecting large areas of the provinces of Chubut, Río Negro, Neuquén, and Santa Cruz. The initiative provides for the immediate disbursement of national funds, contributions from the National Treasury (ATN) for affected provinces, direct assistance to affected individuals and families, reconstruction of damaged or destroyed homes, and an increase in the Universal Child Allowance (AUH) in the affected areas. Luque explained that the project also contemplates “enabling budget items, in an extraordinary manner because it is an emergency,” to alleviate the situation of those who lost their homes, livestock, and livelihood during a key season for the region's tourism. “The people who live in the Andean region live for most of the year on what they earn during the summer season. Those people will not be able to pay their taxes, so we propose exemptions to reduce fiscal pressure and to increase the AUH for those who have lost their homes and their assets.” He also criticized the national government for mentioning sectors of the Mapuche community as being linked to the origin of the fires. “They are trying to stigmatize a sector like the Mapuche, even though a prosecutor and provincial governments have assured that they had no involvement in these fires,” he stated. Luque demanded that the national government “show a sensitivity that it has not had until now, which was seen when the President (Javier Milei) issued a very cold message.” “Last week the Minister of the Interior (Diego) Santilli came, not to help us with the fires, but to seek the support of senators who answer to the provincial government to back the labor reform,” he expressed.
