Employees of the San Martin de Tabacal Sugar Mill attacked and wounded 12 Kolla community members on August 5 in Salta Province, northwestern Argentina, according to IPS News. Buenos Aires lawmakers on the congressional Human Rights Commission denounced the beatings one week later and accused San Martin de Tabacal of illegal and violent attempts to evict the Kolla.
San Martin de Tabacal demanded on August 5 that the Kolla leave their traditional lands in the department of Oran, northern Salta Province. Rulings by provincial legislatures have removed the land's protected status, and San Martin de Tabacal claims to own the land inhabited by the Kolla. The Kolla refused to leave and Marcelo Romero, security chief for San Martin de Tabacal, led a group of 40 security guards into the indigenous village where they attacked 60 families living in the area, reports IPS News. Of the 12 people who sustained injuries, two were hospitalized for head trauma.
"The oldest members of the community were beaten the worst. My father was kicked in the head and passed out," Gabriel Flores, leader of the Igua Pui Genda Kolla community, told IPS News.
The company had been cutting trees and bulldozing lands adjacent to the village prior to the attack. San Martin de Tabacal continues to cut trees near the village and to threaten Kolla villagers. IPS reported that on August 6 another group of security forces approached the village but without confrontation.
Exploitation of indigenous Kolla by San Martin de Tabacal dates back to 1918 when the sugar company was founded by Robustiano Patron Costas, a member of the Salta ruling class who later became vice-president of Argentina. Patron Costas bought San Andres, another town in Salta Province, and though the land was unsuitable for cane cultivation, Patron Costas effectively purchased the Kolla along with their land. San Martin de Tabacal used indigenous community members as a feudal labor force from 1936 until 1946, when they marched to petition then-President Juan Peron for rights to their lands.
In 1996, U.S.-based Seaboard Corporation bought San Martin de Tabacal. Seaboad, which has offices in Kansas and Massachusetts, declined to comment on the August 5 beatings.
