Indigenous oppression in Patagonia – is it a Welsh matter?

Lucy Taylor

On 9 January 2025, the Mapuche-Tehuelche community of Lof Pailako in Andean Patagonia was forcibly evicted by armed Federal Police.

In a clear demonstration of state power, the governor of Chubut Province Ignacio (Nacho) Torres and Argentine interior minister Patricia Bullrich attended the event which was filmed and uploaded to Instagram.

The few families affected had already left, choosing to go on their own terms after months of intimidation and legal battles.

This sort of event does not reach the news agenda in Wales, but given that it took place near Esquel, a town proudly founded by Welsh settlers, perhaps it should. We were there at the start.

The trigger for this and similar evictions was the setting of fires in the Los Alerces National Park which devastated around 70,000 hectares of pristine native forest.

Terricide

The authorities blame the Indigenous communities who vehemently deny any involvement. Indeed, in a press release, they stated emphatically that ‘The Mapuche-Tehuelche People do not burn forests. They protect them and live in harmony with them’, labelling the devastation as ‘terricide’ and ‘crimes against nature’.

Community leaders ask the pertinent question ‘who benefits from the fires’? Many argue, in a pattern seen right across the Americas, that mega projects, focused on infrastructure, mining and hydrocarbon extraction are behind the fires which, once the native forest is destroyed, become feasible.

Indigenous communities fear a repeat of the Futaleufú Dam, constructed during the military dictatorship to serve the aluminium company Aluar, and identify links between political elites, Argentine business leaders and international companies.

For this reason, Mapuche activist Moira Millan suggests that ‘it isn’t just about the Lof Pailako, it is about establishing a policy regime for big business’ and believes that this lies behind the evictions: ‘the stone in their shoe is us, the Original Peoples.’

Fake

Andean Indigenous communities face two major obstacles. Firstly, their right to claim land is contested by authorities who brand them as fake or ‘self-proclaimed Mapuche’ who come to ‘usurp and illegally occupy protected areas in the National Park’.

Governor Torres promotes this image of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Mapuches, saying: ‘We must separate those who are our Original Peoples from these criminals who raise false flags to commit crimes [and] get hold of private property’. Human rights groups label this creation of ‘internal enemies’ as racism.

Secondly, Indigenous communities are in a complex legal situation. Governor Torres justifies his actions by saying ‘Everything within the law. Nothing outside the law’ but this overlooks the history of skewed property rights which work against Indigenous communities.

Until as late as the 1880s, Patagonia was, in effect, governed by Indigenous communities, when territory was taken by force during the so-called Conquest of the Desert.[1] This military campaign dispossessed Indigenous people, forced them into internment camps and sent them to work in the army (men) or as servants (women and children). The land was appropriated for national ownership and given to large companies (often British) or allocated for settlement.[2] Amongst those who benefitted were the Welsh settlers who built the towns of Esquel and Trevelin.[3]

Ancestral lands

Until recently Indigenous communities could use legal procedure to reclaim ancestral lands. However, Argentina’s right-wing populist president, Javier Milei, has abolished the National Registry of Indigenous Communities (RENACI) and communities like Lof Pailako can no longer follow this route to legal possession. Evictions have also accelerated since Law 26.160 was suspended which impeded the expulsion of Indigenous communities from their territories.

This troubling situation is not a remote injustice, though: Welsh people are directly connected. The military expedition of 1884 to claim the Andean lands for Argentina was accompanied by twenty nine Welsh pioneers (the ‘rifleros’) in search of land for Welsh settlers.[4]

Territory once belonging to Indigenous communities was appropriated by the Welsh who gazed on ‘Cwm Hyfryd’ and declared it to be the perfect ‘Lovely Valley’ for them. This blessed benefit to the Welsh came at a cost of dispossession and violence for the Original Peoples who had once called it home.

We still celebrate the story of Welsh Patagonia today without recognizing its colonial impact. Partly, this is because we focus on Welsh-Indigenous relations in the Chubut Valley, based on trading during the first 20 years, rather than the later histories of Indigenous dispossession and Welsh Argentinization, especially in the Andes.

Welsh pride

There is a good reason for this – it can be celebrated as an instance of Welsh moral strength, helping to bolster Welsh pride.[5] Given its political importance, this happy narrative is understandably cherished. However, Welsh Patagonia is a settlement of two halves, and if we are interested in the truth, we should pay attention to the whole picture, colonial warts and all.

Facing up to the more disturbing aspects of our history is a debt that we owe to the Indigenous communities our ancestors helped to dispossess. Learning about their current struggles for land and cultural justice is a first and important step on that journey.

[1] Carolyn Larson (ed.), The Conquest of the Desert, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2020).

[2] Cristian Aliaga, ‘The land ‘wars’ in twenty-first century Patagonia’ Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies  28:1 (2019), 139-151.

[3] Liliana Pérez, Lelek Aike – del Desierto a la comunidad, (Trelew: Remitente Patagonia, 2022).

[4] Lucy Taylor, Global Politics of Welsh Patagonia, (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2025), 149-76.

[5] Lucy Taylor, ‘The Welsh Way of Colonization in Patagonia: The International Politics of Moral Superiority’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 47/6, (2019), 1069-1099.

Lucy Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. She will be discussing her new book Global Politics of Welsh Patagonia at Palas Print bookshop, Caenarfon, on Thursday 24 July, 19:00, and at the Aberystwyth University stand at the National Eisteddfod on Friday 8 August, 11:00.

Global Politics of Welsh Patagonia is available to read for free via https://doi.org/10.16922/globalpoliticswelshpatagonia and is also available in paperback in all good bookshops.