On June 27, the government of Argentina filed an appeal to temporarily halt the auction of 10,000 hectares of land in the country’s northwestern province of Santiago del Estero, home to roughly 4,000 people, most of whom are indigenous. A court ordered the auction after Banco Platense, a bank that had listed the land as collateral on a loan, went bankrupt. Those who held accounts with the bank demanded their deposits be returned and courts ruled the bank compensate former account holders. The land, home to six villages, has an estimated value of $1 million. Organizations working with the communities have asked the government not only to stop the auction, but also to recognize the peoples' right to the land.
The case highlights a problem that began two years ago, when the same bank auctioned off another piece of land, evicting 12 families in the process. Pablo Muratore, a lawyer for El Ceibal, a non-governmental organization that works with the peasants living in the area, said, ”The good thing about this case is that it is creating public awareness of an issue that has gone unresolved for years now throughout northwest Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay—the problem of land use and ownership.”
