On February 11, 2025, multiple violent raids were carried out simultaneously in Lofs (Mapuche Indigenous communities) throughout the Andean mountain range, region of Chubut Province, Argentina, including Lof Pillañ Mawiza, Lof Cañio, Lof Catriman Colihueque, Lof Nahuelpan, la Radio Comunitaria Mapuche Petü Mogeleiñ in El Maitén, as well as raiding several individuals’ homes.

Further news has not been available from the Lof Pillañ Mahuiza, where the community–including children–has been without access to communication equipment after the violent incursion of the Comando Unificado, a recently established federal police unit. Victoria Dolores Fernández Núñez, a member of the community, was arrested and brought to Esquel, where she is being held. 

These raids–carried out by order of the sentence enforcement judge in Esquel, Jorge Criado, and the public prosecutor, Carlos Cavallo–take place within the context of wildfires burning out of control in Patagonia, which have to date destroyed over 300,000 hectares. State officials have used these fires to further criminalize the Mapuche People, assuming them of causing the fires, when in fact, Indigenous people such as the members of the Linares community in Neuquén have, for days, been fighting to control the fires with all the tools at their disposal. Just a day before the raids, the governor of Chubut, Ignacio Torres, had referred to Mapuche communities as “terrorists of fire,” establishing a pretext for the raids.

This criminalization and the raids are framed within a broader campaign to deligitimize the struggle and resistance of the Mapuche People through disproportionate and violent actions, including evictions, raids, criminalization and persecution of the communities by the national government in collaboration with provincial governments. It is not a coincidence that this is occurring in Mapuche territories, which are of great interest to governments and private investors to carry out touristic and extractive projects. 

We demand an immediate end to the raids and the criminalization and persecution of the Mapuche People, as well as the release of, and charges dropped against, Victoria Dolores Fernández Núñez, who was unjustly detained during the raids.

Top photo credit: ANRed