Alarm clock and almanac as a gift: Chicana to Jorge Taiana for ‘not to fall asleep’ in Justice

A group of referents of the United Republicans made him a curious and sarcastic gift to Jorge Taiana: they gave him an alarm clock and an almanac. The Chicano gesture was after the Minister of Defense presented an appeal after the deadline to prevent the delivery of Army land to Mapuche groups.

The clock and the calendar were the photogenic objects with which the Republicans posed Jamil SantoroJosé Magioncalda, Juan Fazio, Nicolás Silvera and Antonella Balbiani, in front of the Liberator Buildingwhich houses the Ministry of Defense and where Taiana has an office.

They went there to file an administrative appeal, with the aim of to investigate and find those responsible of the delivery of the property of almost 180 hectares in Bariloche.

The land was under the control of the Juan Domingo Perón Mountain School since the 1960s. However, a court ruling ordered that the land be transferred before June 28 to the Mapuche community Millalonco Ranquehuewhich claims them by “ancestral right”.

The resolution that ordered the delivery of the property bears the signature of the substitute judge of Bariloche, Silvina Domínguez. Then the Ministry of Defense filed an appeal so that the change of hands does not take place, but was rejected for having been presented after the deadline by the official Silvia Vazquezwhich had to answer for the Army.

The Republican referents sowed suspicion about the Defense delay. And incidentally they took advantage of the irony and left a message to Taiana that he “does not fall asleep” in the face of judicial requisitions.

“Could be something more than a mere mistake”, they pointed out, more seriously, in a statement. “This is given the background of the government party and various government officials endorsing organizations of Mapuche self-perceivedwho question the sovereignty of the Argentine State”.

In addition, they requestedpublic information related to the hiring of the lawyer who represents the National State in the trial in question”.

And they added that they would proceed judicially on Taiana if there is no satisfactory answer. “We will file a criminal complaint”said Magioncalda, lawyer and legal representative of the Apolo Foundation, about a possible negative scenario.

A controversial delivery

The case began in 2012, with the claim of the self-styled Mapuche groups. An amparo favorable to them ordered the delivery of the land before the end of June.

The term for the appeal of the measure taken by the first instance magistrate expired on Friday, February 4, at 12, but Defense would have notified the Army “just the next day at 3:00 p.m.,” questioned the former minister of the area, Horacio Jaunarena, in dialogue with Clarion.

Now, the Army -by order of Taiana- presented to the Chamber of General Roca the Extraordinary Appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, to reverse the decision of first instance.

In the letter they argued that the Army was not represented and described the fact as an “obvious arbitrariness”.

In case of not prospering, on June 28 the lands must be in the hands of the INAI (Institute of Indigenous Affairs, headed by Magdalena Odarda), which will hand it over to the Mapuche groups.

The case could set a precedent for numerous similar claims. It is estimated that there half a hundred of presentations from native communities and that the claimed properties reach, in total, 2,800 hectares, many of them in National Park spaces.

DS