Argentine Indians call off hunger strike, in talks with gov't

Buenos Aires, Agency
The five members of a community of Toba Indians from northern Argentina who for a week have been camping out in Buenos Aires and pursuing a hunger strike on Thursday decided to end their protest after they were received by government officials who listened to their demands for justice and the return of lands.

The leader and four other members of the La Primavera community in the province of Formosa, which borders on Paraguay, decided to call off the hunger strike they began last Thursday after meeting with officials from the Human Rights secretariat and with the head of the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, Claudio Morgado.

The agreement arrived at by the parties, government sources said, calls for a dialogue to guide the territorial conflict, the delivery of a national identity document, concrete action to provide for the health of the community and a request that border guards guarantee the community's security.

The Indians camped at the intersection of two of the capital's main avenues with the aim of getting an audience with officials with the administration of Cristina Fernandez to demand the "immediate return" of the lands that, they claim, were taken from them by the provincial government.

The protesters also asked for the "trial and punishment of those responsible for the repression" unleashed on Nov. 23, the day that a La Primavera resident and a police officer died when police tried to forcefully clear the highway the Indians were blocking in their demand for the return of the lands in question.

Felix Diaz, the community leader, admitted Thursday that although "a great many things are lacking," they had ended the hunger strike because the government decided to begin to work on their demands, among which are also problems of survival such as the lack of both water and adequate health measures.

"I'm going to lift the hunger strike because I believe that I am up against a very difficult situation. This does not mean that we're going to stop the struggle," said Diaz before beginning to break up the camp the five people had set up.

In an interview with Efe, the indigenous leader on Wednesday had said that he and his companions were "hopeful" that the government would pay attention to and resolve their demands "because that is the obligation of the Argentine state, to recover the dignity of the indigenous peoples."

Initially, there were six Indians who began the hunger strike, but one of them - the only woman - had to break off her participation on Monday because her health had been greatly affected by the high temperatures in the capital in recent days.

The protest by the original people inhabiting Formosa province has received the support of several rights organizations, including Amnesty International, which this week said that "authorities with decision-making power" were not taking an interest in the situation.

"The indifference and disinterest of the government in the face of this problem is ever more evident. How sad it would be if in 30 years we had to make an historic reparation for human rights violations against the indigenous peoples of today and recall a present that we could have written differently," said the interim director of Amnesty International Argentina, Gabriela Boada.