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The legal representative pointed out that the usurpation of land began last December.
The original Yacoraite community, in the Jujuy town of Huacalera, denounced the usurpation of their lands by a private tourism enterprise, which they accused of having built houses violating the rights enshrined in the national Constitution. “What we are denouncing is land usurpation because this belongs to us, it is community territory,” said the president of the Yacoraite community, Noemí Espejo, following filing a criminal complaint with the Humahuaca city prosecutor’s office and with the authorities of the local police station. . Meanwhile, official sources indicated to Página12 that the situation was already being negotiated in search of a solution.
The complainant, representing the indigenous community, reported that the usurpation began from the first days of last December, from a “supposed permit” that the tourist enterprise obtained from the municipal commission of Huacalera, in Tilcara. “Let’s plan a meeting with the company in which they presented folders containing the entire tourism project that they want to do in the place, but we do not know what tourist circuits they have planned,” he said, noting that “approximately they would be covering 19 hectares” of the community , according to the Télam agency.
The company began the construction of dome-type houses last December and “to date there are already 12,” they said, with which “they are overriding the rights of the communities and the local municipal commission.” According to Espejo, this same company “previously usurped other lands that belong to the neighboring community, Angosto de Yacoraite, which at the time denounced them and they ended up withdrawing.” So far there have been several presentations made by the community once morest this company for usurpation, among them by the Secretariat of Indigenous Peoples, the governor of the province, Gerardo Morales, and the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Federico Posadas, but none of them got “no response”.
“In the Ministry of Tourism of the province they told us that they are working for tourism and promoting it, but we did not get an answer regarding the usurpation of community lands,” said Espejo finally. Huacalera is a town located in the department of Tilcara, 100 kilometers north of San Salvador de Jujuy. It is known for the Tropic of Capricorn monolith, but it also stands out for its cultural and natural attractions such as the Pucará de Molla archaeological site and the colonial mill, the work of the Jesuits who, among others, are part of the heritage of the Quebrada de Humahuaca . In Yacoraite is the “Pollera de la coya” hill, the archaeological site “Los Amarillos” and also antigales, in an area where communities have lived together since ancient times.
