A land dispute in Argentina's Chubut province has exposed a collusion between the state and private business involving indigenous territories. Businessman and former footballer Aldo Duscher obtained from the Autonomous Institute of Colonization and Rural Development (IAC) a precarious occupation permit for 600 hectares of state land for a nominal fee. This permit, as explained by the community's lawyer Virgilio Sánchez, is "the first step to taking ownership of the lands." The IAC, while acknowledging the lands are state-owned and in dispute, still granted the permit, despite the community's long-standing, unanswered requests for the same. This process contradicts the legality of judicial cases that criminalize people who have lived there for decades. The scandal is part of a broader offensive against the Mapuche-Tehuelche communities in a context of increasing repression. The community maintains that the permit was used as a pretext to criminalize their ancestral presence while enabling a new private appropriation of state lands. Lawyer Luis Virgilio Sánchez warned of a fraudulent maneuver with state complicity involving IAC officials. While the IAC claims there was "no irregular delivery" and the "lands belong to the state," the community reports that ancestral access roads have been blocked, gates with locks have been installed, a ditch has been dug, and families have been threatened, including by shooting at dogs and preventing sick people from moving. This occurs amid an escalation of repression, including the detention of leaders and the inclusion of community members in a public registry of people and entities linked to terrorist acts.
