Gan Gan March 26, 2022

Residents from Gan Gan and from surrounding areas of the north central plateau (meseta) region, and the Mapuche Tehuelche communities of Mallín de los Cual, Yalalaubat Blancuntre and Chacay Oueste - Laguna Fria, have gathered to celebrate our achievement as residents of Chubut in repealing the law to rezone the area for mining. We reaffirm our ongoing and resolute struggle in defense of water and territory. 

• We demand that Pan American Silver peacefully withdraw from the provincial territory of Chubut.
• Restore the chenque (our Indigenous burial site) to its ancestral place, after it was desecrated by the mining company in collaboration with the provincial government. 
• We demand the provincial government resolve the water situation affecting the province and the community of Yalalaubat in particular, who has been without water since June 2021, and not pass on the responsibility to third parties. 
• We reiterate the need to respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples as recognized by our own provincial constitution, ILO Convention 169, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In the meseta, we continue to be committed to our ancestral way of life, knowing that mining is not “the only alternative form of development.” There are communities and organizations of small producers that are showing that our work is sustainable, without causing harm to our land, always in harmony with the ñuke mapu.

We continue to be on alert and are organizing to push forward the Third Popular Initiative, convinced that it is a tool of the people of Chubut who are steadfast in their firm decision to oppose this plundering and pollution. We demand that this initiative be seen as a legitimate expression of the will of the people and be turned into law. 

That is why we find ourselves concerned and occupied in the defense of our territory, of life, of water, of our buen vivir, respecting the Sacanana aquifer as our main source of life. 

Chubut has already decided
The Meseta (Plateau) is not a Sacrifice Zone.