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05Apr14

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The racist Walter Ferrufino commences a campaign to break up and disolve the APG IG

The statements which we reproduce below, made by Walter Ferrufino and published by Red Erbol, form part of a campaign organised from his office using individuals employed for this sole purpose. It should also be said that Red Erbol did not in any way seek to corroborate the statements with the APG IG, which would have been the expected as the minimum level of journalistic ethics.


Walter Ferrufino

Specifically, the Sectional Executive (Ejecutivo Seccional) of O'Connor Province has recruited 18 individuals as "henchmen" (capangas) in order to visit all the communities within the authority of the APG IG, to try and bring about the dismissal of the Board and obtain the necessary majority to achieve the "derogation" (sic) of the organization's Statute, passed last year with the unanimous vote of the 36 historical communities which make up the APG IG.

To do this, he has also acquired some pickup trucks (approximately 10) to enable these individuals to move around the extensive territory of the Original Community Territory Itika Guasu (TCO IG) with the publicly stated intention of breaking up the organization and effecting its dissolution.

With reference to his statement concerning the pollution caused by oil exploitation, the APG IG obviously has no authority in respect of the environment and, in addition, the operations of Repsol Bolivia SA are regularly monitored by the YPFB (Bolivia's state hydrocarbons company) authorities; thus, if there were any truth to his statements, he should address them to the relevant authorities and not to the indigenous people of the APG IG.

It should also be pointed out that the agreement signed between the APG IG and Repsol Bolivia SA provided for a system of environmental audits from the commencement of the oil exploitation operations in the TCO IG by the company Maxus SA until the date of the execution of the agreement. From the date thereof, it provides that periodic environmental audits are to be carried out and, at the end of the contract of exploitation (which has a term of 30 years), "the land must be returned to its original state".

This agreement is a pioneer of its kind in Latin America and in Bolivia it exceeds the legal standards currently in effect.

Thus Walter Ferrufino is deliberately telling lies, which appears to be his normal political conduct since he was elected. These statements are no more than demonstrations of racism provoked by the fact that he cannot control the territory of the APG IG and that the various personnel contracted by his Office, in the O'Connor Sub Government, have failed in their tasks.

The following is a list of capangas contracted by Walter Ferrufino for the purposes of this campaign, some of whom have been disciplined by the APG IG in accordance with its uses and customs:

  • Arevayo, Santos (expelled from his position as Mbuvuruvicha responsible for infrastucture by a unanimous vote of the Extraordinary General Assembly of Mburuvichas on 27 and 28 February 2014)
  • Arevayo, Hugo (permanent sanction in accordance with uses and customs on 5 October 2012)
  • Arevayo, Rene (permanent sanction in accordance with uses and customs on 5 October 2012)
  • Arevayo, Anastacio (sanctioned in accordance with uses and customs for serious irregularities in the use of funds while a public official in Prosol on 5 October 2012).
  • Arevayo, Juan
  • Avendaño, Crisanta
  • Barrientos, Juan Pablo
  • Barrio, Ángela
  • Corimango, Nativa
  • Maire, Martín (The Extraordinary General Assembly of Mburuvichas of 27 and 28 February 2014 ordered an investigation according to uses and customs with a view to expulsion from the APG IG)
  • Maire, Felipe (The Extraordinary General Assembly of Mburuvichas of 27 and 28 February 2014 ordered an investigation according to uses and customs with a view to expulsion from the APG IG)
  • Maire, Weimar
  • Méndez, Vilma
  • Novillo, Dionisio
  • Novillo, Eloy (The Extraordinary General Assembly of Mburuvichas of 27 and 28 February 2014 ordered an investigation according to uses and customs with a view to expulsion from the APG IG; suspended as Mburuvicha by the Assembly on 12 November 2009).
  • Segundo, Alfredo
  • Segundo, Eduardo
  • Segundo, Dionilda

These individuals seek meetings with the indigenous people and pay 400 bolivianos to those who attend the meeting and another 400 bolivianos to those who agree to further the racist campaign promoting the dismissal of the Board and to obtain the support of 51% of the communal Mburuvichas to annul the organic Statute of the APG IG.

This campaign is financed with the public funds of the Sectional Executive, which organically belongs to the Departmental Legislative Assembly of Tarija.

With respect to the Itika Guasu Investment Fund, Mr Ferrufino's references to the same is a recurring theme in his campaign against the indigenous organization since 2010 and are a result of his racism. His racism does not allow him to accept indigenous autonomy, nor that the APG IG is currently cultivating over 970 hectares of communal lands and develops a health programme in which US$150,000 per annum are invested, nor that it has entered into agreements which respect the uses and customs of the indigenous people and the right to prior consultation with the Municipality of Entre Rios and with the provincial representatives of the Ministry of Education pursuant to the Constitutional Judgement 2003/2010-R, a judgement which Walter Ferrufino has refused to execute and with which he refuses to comply, for which reason he has been indicted in January 2013.

The fact that the Guaranies of the TCO IG have organised themselves using their own methods and means is more than he can accept given his disposition to slavery, based in family tradition, and his conservative agrarian colonialist ideology.

Guaye and Charleroi, 5 April 2014
Gregorio Dionis, President of Equipo Nizkor and member of the legal team of the APG IG

The Guaranies are accused of permitting oil pollution in Tarija

The Sectional executive of the Municipality of Entre Ríos of the Department of Tarija,Walter Ferrufino, has accused the guaranies of permitting environmental pollution by the company Repsol in their territories.

He stated that an agreement was entered into last year between the Board of the Assembly of the Guarani People of Itika-Guasu (APG-IG) and the multinational company whereby US$14.5 million was paid, according to the legislator, in order to be able to cause damage to the environment.

"Do you know what it has cost Repsol for it to be able to do whatever it likes in the Department of Tarija, especially in the area of the APG Itika-Guasu? It has cost them 14.8 million dollars, that is what it has cost Repsol - so that no-one bothers them about the environment, so that they have the support of the Board of the APG, not of the Guarani people, but of the APG Board. And with that they can do whatever they like on the subject of the environment because in total that is what the environment costs, that is what the health and the life of our guarani comrades cost, US$14.8 million, which they have given to the APG so that they can manage it in a private account in Brazil", he stated to radio Aclo of the Red Erbol.

Ferrufino advised that the Hydrocarbons Commission of the Departmental Legislative Assembly of Tarija will present a legal action to the Public Ministry against the company Repsol for its actions in Guarani territory.

"I want to tell you and I have always said that I am one of the people who oppose the way Repsol works and conducts itself, these gentlemen, I think that the time has come when they either adapt their behaviour in our department or they have to go. And I am going to be at the head of those who pursue this movement so that the oil company goes", he added.

[Source: Erbol, La Paz, 02Apr14]
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small logoThis document has been published on 09Apr14 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.