The following open letter to President Javier Milei was signed by 39 organizations, including MiningWatch Canada. Argentinian organizations and mining affected communities denounce President’s Milei for trying to pass a presidential decree that would modify the National Glacier protection law in order to allow more industrial mining in highly sensitive ecosystems such as glaciers and periglacial zones - which would heavily benefit Canadian companies, and threaten many communities' drinking water.

Argentina’s Law 26,639 highlights the role of glaciers and the periglacial environment as water reserves and is very clear in emphasizing that ALL GLACIERS AND PERIGLACIAL GEOFORMS REGARDLESS OF THEIR SIZE MUST BE PROTECTED: 

• ARTICLE 3—Inventory. A National Glacier Inventory shall be created, which shall identify ALL glaciers and periglacial landforms that act as water reserves within the national territory, with all the information necessary for their adequate protection, control, and monitoring.
• ARTICLE 2—Definition. For the purposes of this law, a glacier is understood to be ANY stable or slowly flowing mass of ice, with or without interstitial water, formed by the recrystallization of snow, located in different ecosystems, regardless of its shape, SIZE, and state of conservation.
• Likewise, in glaciers and the entire periglacial environment, the release, dispersion or disposal of pollutants, chemical products or waste of any nature or volume, and mining and hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation are prohibited (Article 6, subsections a and c).

The protection of glaciers stems from our collective environmental rights – entire regions in this country, and all of the communities within them, depend on glaciers in order to access a key strategic resource: water. THE PROTECTION OF GLACIERS AND THE PERIGLACIAL ENVIRONMENT MUST BE APPROACHED IN A SYSTEMIC MANNER, CONSIDERING THEM AS INTEGRAL ECOSYSTEMS.

The flow of mountain rivers forms part of an INDIVISIBLE INTERRELATED SYSTEM involving snow, glaciers, and the periglacial environment.

By passing the National Glacier Law, Congress recognized the damaging effects of certain extractive processes—more specifically, the possible impact of large-scale mining in certain regions of the country— on the preservation and conservation of glaciers as “STRATEGIC RESERVES” THAT PROVIDE WATER FOR THE PLANET ( See Article 1 of that law). Mega-mining generates blasting and suspended dust that affect the albedo of glaciers, causing local warming that makes them melt more quickly, and can also cause the diversion of watercourses and pollution of rivers. For example, Barrick Gold’s Veladero mine and successive mercury spills have contaminated the Jáchal River basin since 2015, and the collapse of BHP’s  tailings dam at the Samarco mine in 2015 released a huge wave of toxic mud, which contaminated the Doce River - reaching all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, and caused the death of 19 people in Brazil.

For all these reasons, it is inconceivable that President Javier Milei now wants to irresponsibly and illegally order the “forced disappearance” of glaciers smaller than one hectare through his decree. In the province of San Juan alone, 1,400 glaciers would be condemned to destruction. Milei wants to ORDER THE DESTRUCTION of the only water source that we mountain people have, because from Mendoza to the north, most glaciers are less than one hectare in size. We do not have glaciers like Perito Moreno in the Central Desert Andes.

With this attempt to modify the Glacier law by presidential decree, President Milei is going against both the Argentine Constitution and against the international consensus that approved the Paris Agreement in 2015 and was ratified by the Argentine Republic in 2016, and directly threatening the water sources of the inhabitants of the mountain provinces. This decree also violates the general environmental law and the Escazú Agreement, which establish the principle of non-regression in environmental protection, consultation with communities, and the right to information, among other rights. We now understand much better the repression, criminalization, and persecution of water defenders, who represent an obstacle to their perverse plans and environmental rollbacks.

What's more, with this decision, Milei’s government is trying to make us disappear from these territories, as publicly acknowledged by their Chief Economic Advisor, Demian Reidel, who said a couple of months ago that “the problem with Argentina is that it's populated by Argentinians.”

Milei intends to issue a decree to remove environmental protections for glaciers and periglacial landforms smaller than one hectare in order to secure a zone for the benefit of mega-mining corporations, without taking people into account. Where does he get the idea that a glacier measuring 99 meters by 99 meters does not have to be preserved, or one measuring 90 by 90, or one measuring 80 by 120, or one measuring 50 by 190, or one measuring 40 meters by 240 meters? All these examples cover less than one hectare and ARE STRATEGIC WATER RESERVES because, when there is not enough snowfall in the mountains, they systematically provide the essential flow to prevent the mountain rivers from drying up.

If this unconstitutional decree allowing the destruction of thousands of glaciers smaller than one hectare goes ahead, in a couple of years we will be left without these INVALUABLE WATER RESERVES...

We reject the anti-democratic and anti-republican actions of the government of Javier Gerardo Milei, in seeking to modify the provisions of the Glacier Law by decree, and we call on the great Argentine people to defend the National Glacier Law for the good of all the children of Argentina, because the water from these glaciers flows all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, both on the surface and below ground.

This is why we need everyone to come out and join us to shout “Hands off the Glacier Law”, because THE GLACIERS BELONG TO EVERYONE AND MUST BE PROTECTED.

We are water that flows, with the joy of rivers and streams, with the deep serenity of lakes, and with the strength of glaciers... glaciers that must be protected.

We will resist any attempt to modify the National Glacier Law because our future and that of our future generations is at stake.

Signed:

1. Asamblea Jáchal No se toca.
2. Asamblea No a la Mina Esquel.
3. Asamblea Popular por el Agua de Mendoza.
4. Asamblea por necesidad y urgencia Mendoza.
5. Asamblea de Las Heras por el Agua Pura.
6. Asamblea Socioamabiental por el Agua de Guaymallen.
7. Observatorio de personas con discapacidad de Mendoza.
8. Coordinadora Socioambiental Bahía Blanca.
9. Cta Bahía Blanca.
10. Equipo del programa radial "Caminando el territorio" AM 1240 www.radiouns.edu.ar
11. Foro Ambiental y Social de la Patagonia. Comodoro Rivadavia
12. Grupo GAIA (Socioambiental). Mendoza.
13. Instituto de Capacitación Popular (ICP). Mendoza
14. Arte x el agua de Mendoza.
15. Asamblea Socioambiental Baradero, Pcia. de Bs As.
16. Red de Luchas Socioambientales de Salta.
17. Guardianes del Arbolado – Mendoza.
18. Comunidad Costera TDFAEIAS.
19. "Campaña Defendamos el Martial" Tierra del Fuego.
20. Ambiente en Lucha de Tierra del Fuego.
21. Federación Argentina de Espeleología. FAdE. Malargüe, Mendoza.
22. XR Rebelión o Extinción. Argentina.
23. Asociación civil ciudadanos de Mendoza.
24. Asamblea de Vecinos Autoconvocados de Uspallata.
25. Yo Amo a Mis Sierras.
26. Asamblea SocioAmbiental El Trapiche.
27. CLAMA Cielos Limpios en América Monitor Ambiental.
28. Colectivo de Trabajadores por la Ventana (docentes entrerrianos).
29. Ambiente en Lucha Nacional.
30. MOVIMIENTO ALTERNATIVA DE ARGENTINA.
31. ASOC. SIN FINES DE LUCRO DEL CIELO A LA TIERRA.
32. PROGRAMA RADIAL HUMANIDAD ¿ADÓNDE VAS?
33. RED JARILLA DE PLANTAS SALUDABLES DE LA PATAGONIA
34. Feria Popular de Guaymallen.
35. La multisectorial Golfo San Matías.
36. Coordinadora Plurinacional Basta de Falsas Soluciones.
37. Asamblea de Vecinos Autoconvocados de Viedma y Carmen de Patagones
38. Movilización Mundial por el agua para los pueblos.
39. MiningWatch Canadá