We the Assemblies of Chubut manifest our energetic rejection of the recent statements that governor Mariano Arcioni made about the need to re-open the debate on mega-mining. Yes, Arcioni, the governor of a province which has spent the last four months without classes [teachers are on strike], says, yet again, that it is necessary to debate mining in Chubut.

He said this in Esquel while welcoming the creation of a Mining Commerce Chamber, a criminal commercial chamber, since that activity is prohibited by law. In this way he is repeating a call made in 2018, when he approvingly declared in a press conference that the public hearings that were being proposed by the pro-mining deputies Bruscoli and Di Fillipo should be viewed as a regulatory framework for a possible debate about mega-mining in the province.

Now, a year later, he threatens with the same idea by opening a false-debate, a debate which we as a society have already had. This debate could never be carried out by a provincial government who is servile to the transnational mining powers and who wavers to the national political powers as any slave might.

We reject the declarations of this top-level official of the provincial executive power and this absurd repetition. We refute his ridiculous participation in a plan of ecocide, meeting these days with its primary protagonists in the Argentina Gold & Silver International Seminar at the Hotel Panamericano in Buenos Aires.

We make public our same rejection of Ricardo Sastre, the Mayor of Puerto Madryn and vice-governor elect, and the Canadian Consular Officer, who have been wandering around the Madryn Port, to which they wish to make part of their scheme of plunder and death. We also denounce Adrián Maderna, the Mayor of Trelew, and his agreement with the Chamber of Suppliers and Mining Entrepreneurs (CAPEM for its initials in Spanish).

We have not forgotten that exactly five years ago the provincial legislature of Chubut commited legislative fraud with our Popular Iniciative, while the government and their thugs beat us up in the doorway.

Just as Arcioni changes his discursive turn every time an election comes near, we see the provincial deputies prepared to also the stone and hide. Will the hands of the deputies of the FPV [Political party named Frente de Todos] vote in favour even though, just months ago, they were demanding his destitution? Will these same hands, those of Mesa Evans, Grazzini and Doufour, be thrown up high to promote a false debate which will give passageway to mining in the province, after decades of popular resistance?

Or, have they let themselves be seduced by the smile of their new boss, he who believes we are all ignorant and need to be “educated” so that we willing give up our territories to transnational mining capitals? Or, did Gioja’s visit ensure their pockets were full of pro-mining arguments?

They should take note, Alberto Fernandez and his friends in the CAEM, that the people of Chubut are certain of the fact that water is worth more than gold; that the mining profits leave nothing but hunger, bullets and contamination on our lands; that sustainability is rotten fish in their mouths when what they really want is to blow up the heart of our Patagonia, this heart that doesn’t recognize borders and, in Ingeniero Jacobacci just like in Gan Gan, beats under the earth in the form of subterranean aquifers which we will never give up. You got it? The people are on their feet and we will not allow any more abuses! Or, do they think they will impose it by blood and fire? So that Massoni returns to Security Office? Don’t even try it!   

Five years after the scandal of the popular initiative legislative fraud, we will never forget those who betrayed the people of Chubut: Gustavo Muñiz, Javier Cisneros, Ika Martínez, Gustavo Reyes, Eduardo Daniel, Juan Ale, Mónica Gallego, Adolfo Mariñanco, Héctor Trotta, Féliz Sotomayor, Elba Willhuber, Vicente Jara, Ezequiel Villagra, Alejandra Johnson Taccari and Carlos Gómez. The people reject them! Massoni, out, one more time! Two years after Rafael Nahuel was shot, neither bullets nor death will detain our fight for water, life and territory! They shall not pass! 

Chubut, 28 November 2019

(translated by Kirsten Francescone, any errors are my own)