MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Resignation of those who declared a volcano a Mapuche sacred site requested

Cabandié has worked hard to distance himself from that document which was in its entirety an APN issue.

Argentina's Environment Minister Juan Cabandié demanded the resignation of National Parks Administration (APN) Chairman Lautaro Erratchú and of the rest of the agency's board after last week they declared the Lanín volcano a Mapuche sacred site.

Neuquén Governor Omar Gutiérrez had labeled APN's decision 484 dated August 3 “an attack on provincial autonomy,” despite the fact that the National Parks fall under federal jurisdiction. “It is an attack on provincial autonomy, one more act of centralism and an intrusion,” Gutiérrez said.
`Although the APN later recanted on that controversial decision, Cabandié asked for the resignation of the entire board of directors.

Meanwhile, the Mapuche Confederation declared itself in a “state of alert and mobilization” after the controversial measure was reversed. “We regret the political fragility of the national government and in particular of the Minister of Environment, Juan Cabandié, incapable of sustaining a political decision for 24 hours,” they said.

“The lack of credibility and courage of his administration caused the reversal of such a transcendental decision for the Mapuche identity and cosmovision as the declaration of a Sacred Site that protects such a fragile and punished space as our Pijan Mawiza, Lanín Volcano,” the indigenist community went on.

Lautaro Eduardo Erratchú is a lawyer appointed by Cabandié in April 2021 to head the APN. He has a past at the APN within the administration of former President Carlos Menem (1989-1999).

Erratchú is known for criticizing former President Mauricio Macri for leaving the conservation of native species to private foundations. The Argentine Association of Mountain Guides had spoken against Resolution 484, for which there had not even been consulted. Cabandié has worked hard to distance himself from that document which was in its entirety an APN issue.

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