sugar poisoning for ava guarani
indigenous livelihoods disrupted by
sugar corporation in argentina
friends of the earth
argentina
© nicolas pousthomis,
www.argentinaphoto.linefeed.org
Ava Guarani
demonstrate in Argentina for the return of
their ancestral lands.
“Red is the color of our people's
blood; brown is our ancestral territory,
our land and what we are fighting for;
green is the color of nature, our crops,
the forest, our woods.”
Ramon Tamani, Ava Guarani, Salta .
Argentina 's Salta province is the
homeland of the indigenous Ava Guarani
people. Today, the corn, manioc, and
vegetables once grown by these people in
the midst of fertile forests have been
replaced by monoculture sugar cane and
genetically modified soy cash crops. This
environmental destruction has been
accompanied by the displacement and
repression of the Ava Guarani
themselves.
The Ava Guarani lived on their ancestral
lands until the 1970s, when violent
evictions forced them from their homes and
farms in order to make way for the San
Martin del Tabacal company's sugar
plantations and refineries. Many had no
choice but to work in Tabacal's factories,
‘paid' with vouchers valid only at the
company's own shop. In 1996, the US-based
Seaboard Corporation bought Tabacal and
fired 6,000 employees, forcing many of the
Ava Guarani to seek work in the city. Some
150 Ava Guarani families now live on just
two hectares of flood-prone lands, while
the Tabacal mill uses one million hectares
to produce sugar on indigenous
territories.
In September 2003, a group of 70 Ava
Guarani families decided to return to their
ancestral territory, known as ‘La Loma'
(The Hill) in Salta province. Just days
later, they were brutally evicted from
their re-occupied land by a group of armed
police, who aimed firearms at their heads
then shot into the air. All of the Ava
Guarani were then detained, including
children and pregnant women. The
displacement was reportedly ordered by the
Tabacal company.
marching for
justice
In November, members of the community
marched nearly 300 kilometers to Salta City
to claim their land rights and ask for
justice. When their requests to meet with
the governor were not granted, they decided
to travel a further 1,500 kilometers to
Buenos Aires to meet with the president of
Argentina . Although the Minister of Social
Development pledged to investigate the
eviction and the land conflict with
Tabacal, the eventual promised visit was
short and unsatisfactory, and officials did
not even manage to visit La Loma.
As the doors of governments and public
offices closed behind them, the Ava Guarani
received support from unemployed workers,
peasant farmers' movements, environmental
groups and the media in order to organize
actions at Tabacal's main office in Buenos
Aires . The Ava Guarani case has also
attracted global attention. In April 2004,
activists successfully penetrated
Seaboard's annual shareholder's meeting
outside of Boston , posing questions about
indigenous land rights in Salta before
themselves being forcibly evicted from the
meeting.
Despite continued threats from the
company and police, the Ava Guarani are
holding out on their demand for five
thousand hectares of land, enough to
sustain 150 families. For them, the return
of this small parcel of land to cultivate
would be sweeter than sugar.
more information
:
Comunidad Guarani El Tabacal:
Friends of the Earth Argentina
:
Alerta Salta (in Spanish):
www.alerta-salta.org.ar
Indymedia Argentina :
www.argentina.indymedia.org/features/pueblos
Worcester Global Action Network:
www.wogan.org/seaboard
Argentina Autonomista Project:
www.autonomista.org/tabacal.htm
Seaboard information:
www.factoryfarming.org/empirepigs.htm
