TOPICS: NORTHERN ARGENTINA, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, CHOLERA
Letter sent to The South and Meso-american Indian Information Center by
Fundacion para la Promocion de los Pueblos Indigenas "Oyemboati"
(C. de la Paz 2452 8oB Buenos Aires 1428, Argentina. telf: 541-782-3821)
During a long and warm summer, Argentina was hit by the cholera epidemic
on the mounth of February 1992. The first person to acquire the disease,
and the first fatal victim, was a Mataco who lived in Santa Victoria Este,
Province of Salta. Soon five more cases were diagnosed, all of them Mataco
of the same village.
The focal point of the epidemic was the area where the Mataco and Chorote
people live for over 500 years. The area is known as the Gran Chaco and it
comprises the states of Salta, Formosa, Chaco (Argentina) although the Mataco
live also in Southern Bolivia (Tarija) and some in Paraguay. The Chaco area
has been devastated by indiscriminate deforestation. The Mataco and other
Indian groups live in communities which lack sanitary services and do not
posses means of communication.
The Indian people of Argentina in general, and particularly those living in
the Chaco, have been displaced by the national society to marginal areas; they
constitute cheap labor force, and do not have access to adequate health and
education, or social services of any kind.
They become the center of attention of government officials only when they
are victims of infectious diseases which can be transmitted to the rest of
the society. However, historically they have been silent victims of
malnutrition, dysentery, Chagas disease, TBC, infant mortality and many
other illnesses brought by outsiders 500 years ago. It is not by chance,
that Indian people have been the first victims of cholera, also knownn as
"the disease of poverty".
We would like to analyze the way in which this problem was addressed by
government officials, the Argentinean press and society in general.
The provincial Government of Salta, implemented a tight military control,
with the participation of the military assigned to control the border
(National Gendarmerie). Physicians were allowed in the area only when
accompanied by military personnel. The Mataco were intimidated and forced
to attend the health post. A military blockade was set up to isolate the
area. The Mataco people still remember that during the smallpox epidemic
of 1930, military personnel burnt their houses and sick people inside, in
an effort to prevent the spread of the disease to the rest of the population.
As a consequence of this treatment, many Matacos escaped to the deep of the
forest, allowing for further spread of the disease.
The statements of the mass media in relationship to the cholera epidemic,
showed that in Argentina, Indian people are seriously discriminated against.
The discourse of the press blamed the traditional Indian way of life for the
acquisition and transmission of the disease, ignoring their historical
situation of exploitation and racial discrimination. We can provide
examples of the disdain and ignorance of the press in their coverage of the
"news about the cholera epidemic".
A woman legislator said: "these populations do not have cultre, education,
what can we expect of the [Mataco] Indians?"
The landowners of Salta who export vegetable crops declared to the local
press: "because of a few shitty Indians we are going to loose a lot of
money".
Arguments of the press and health officials explain the epidemic in the
following way: "The Indians eat raw fish, they use the [Pilcomayu] river
to defecate". (!). None of these statements are true. The Mataco people do
not eat raw fish, and they are very careful to avoid contamination of their
rivers, for the reason that rivers are their source of life.
But, let's see newspaper headlines of nationwide distribution: "The first
case of cholera in a white person has been diagnosed".
Racial conflicts in Argentina are usually hidden by a discourse which
presents the Argentine society as a homogenous population of European
descent. It conceals and ignores the fact that Argentina is a multiethnic
country, like any country in the American continent, and most of all, it
conceals the racial discrimination against Indian peoples.
After 500 years of the arrival of the European colonizers, the epidemics
continue to be a weapon for the extermination of the first nations of this
continent.
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The Foundation for the Promotion of Indian People "Oyemboati", have provided
The South and Mesoamerican Indian Information Center with information which will
hopefully contribute to raise the awareness about racial discrimination and
ethnocidal policies to which the Indian people have been subjected to in
Argentina.
To protest racial discrimination in ignorance of Indian nations in Argentina
please write to:
President
Carlos Menem
Casa de Gobierno
Buenos Aires,
Argentina