Please Help the Ava Guarani of Salta, Argentina : Argentina Indymedia (( i ))

Please Help the Ava Guarani of Salta, Argentina

On the 16th of September the community of Ava Guarani were evicted from
their land by a group of armed police. The police arrived in the middle of
the night, without an order from the judge, preceded to hit, intimidate
and then detain all 70 of the men, women, and children, including pregnant
women. Just ten days earlier the Guarani had organized to recover their
land because of desperate conditions of poverty, unemployment,
overpopulation, and inundation.
The story of this Guarani community dates back at least to the
1970´s
when nearly all of the indigenous communities in the area were displaced
from their land when agri-businesses arrived in Salta. The Ava, at this
time, were one of the last Guarani communities, and their community next
to the mountains was also one of the most fertile forests remaining. The
forest was destroyed to plant cash crops of sugar cane and GMO soy,
destroying the traditional community production of corn, manioc, and
local vegetables.
The agri-business transported entire communities of indigenous to
cities,
housed them in huge warehouses, and forced them to work for the very
business that was destroying their land. According to one Guarani, “first
they put us in a truck and brought us to the company headquarters, then
we spent the night together in a building, and the next day we were
brought to work”.
In 1996 SEABOARD, a US corporation based in Kansas, bought the
sugar
industry (San Martin of Tabacal), which had originally displaced the Ava
Guarani. Seaboard fired 6,000 employees because they brought with them
machines that reduced the need for workers. Seaboard, as the new owner of
the sugar plantation, exasperated the conditions of unemployment and
poverty.
On September 10, 2004 the Guarani decided to return to their land,
to
escape poverty, and find a life for themselves. The 70 Guarani who
occupied the land are now out of jail and have a case in court. They
marched over 3,000 kilometers to the capital of Salta to demand that the
governor return their land, close the case, and stop the repression. As
no resolution was met, they have come to Buenos Aires to make the same
demands to president Kirschner.
The community of Ava Guarani is asking for six thousand hectares of
land
and life for 300 families.

Please help by putting pressure on SEABOARD Corporation, by contacting the
following SEABOARD executives

H. HARRY BRESKY
Chairman of the Board, President and CEO
STEVEN J. BRESKY
Senior Vice President, International Operations

SEABOARD CORPORATION
(Commodity, Trading & Milling Division)
9000 West 67th Street
P.O. Box 2972
Shawnee Mission, Kansas 66201
Phone: 913-677-5200 or 913-676-8800 Fax: 913-676-8872
Email: seaboard@seaboardcorp.com