We are making an open call to organisations, groups and movements to sign this letter in solidarity with the Puente Quemado II Mbya Guaraní community located in Misiones, Argentina.
In recent months, families have faced deforestation, evictions, criminalisation and threats from security forces, judges and individuals–all serving the interests of the timber industry. This comes on top of the Community’s years-long struggle against the multinational corporation Arauco, which has been encroaching on and destroying Indigenous territories in order to establish industrial monocultures of pine and eucalyptus.
The letter is to be sent to the authorities of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of the aforementioned Province in order to demand that they guarantee the safety along with the right of Mbya families to remain on their ancestral lands.
To the Governor of the
Province of Misiones
Mr HUGO PASSALACQUA
To the President of the
Chamber of Representatives of Misiones
Mr SEBASTIÁN MACÍAS
To the President of the
Supreme Court of Justice of Misiones
Dr ROSANA PIA VENCHIARUTTI SARTORI
The undersigned organisations are writing to you to urgently request that you take the necessary measures to guarantee the safety of the Mbya Guaraní Puente Quemado II community, along with their right to remain on their ancestral territories, which have been surveyed in accordance with National Law 26.160, in Colonia Garuhape, Municipality of Garuhape, Department of Lib. Gral. San Martín, in the Province of Misiones.
We also request that the safety of the Misiones Team for Indigenous Pastoral Care (EMIPA) be guaranteed, along with its freedom to carry out its work, as it accompanies the people of the Puente Quemado II community in their legitimate struggle to defend their rights.
This Community has been suffering an alarming succession of abuses. In particular, since December 2025, when the Ministry of Ecology and Renewable Natural Resources of the Province of Misiones authorised the timber businessman Alfredo Ruff to clear Lots 73, 74 and 75 without the Community’s consent, despite the fact that these plots form part of the surveyed territory. At the time, more than one hundred organisations from 20 countries called on the Ministry to urgently halt the destruction of the forest, given that it is the Community’s living space and source of livelihood.
The clearance was followed, on 5 May this year, by the eviction of the families who were living on Lot 178, Plot 141, in the Cañafístola sector, for the benefit of the same businessman. This sector is also part of the surveyed territory, meaning that the Community was evicted from its own land. During this abusive intervention, eight members of the Community were unjustly arrested, including mburuvicha (chief) Santiago Ramos. Once again, numerous organisations called for the immediate release of all those who had been detained and for the Community’s territorial rights to be guaranteed.
As if this were not enough, on Tuesday 28 July, there was yet another illegitimate eviction of the families who had returned to their territory, who then, insisting on exercising their rights, returned again on Sunday 2 August. They have since been subjected to serious threats, harassment and racist violence.
In view of these events, we consider it urgent to take the necessary measures to guarantee the rights of the Mbya Guaraní Indigenous People as enshrined in the National Constitution of Argentina, as well as in the country’s laws and the International Treaties it has signed.
We thank you for your attention, and look forward to a positive response to our request, and extend to you our warmest regards.
(Signatory organisations)