Letter from Ava Guarani Community Estacion El Tabacal to Seaboard Corp Executives

Hipolito Irigoyen, Salta, Argentina; July 25, 2004

Mr./Ms. Executives
Seaboard Corporation
To Whom It May Concern:

We, the aboriginal people of the Indigenous Community Guarani Estacion El Tabacal, write to you so that you know our problem and the reasons that we, indigenous South Americans of Guarani ethnicity, demand the Territory of "La Loma," in Hipolito Irigoyen.

1. It is ancestral land. Our parents and grandparents were born and lived there. We reclaim our culture and traditions as the Guarani people.
2. There rest our origins, there are at least 3 indigenous cemeteries.
3. That land is the hope for our children because our country suffers serious economic and social problems.
4. All the families from this Guarani community have worked at one time in the Ingenio San Martin del Tabacal, a company controlled by you, and have collaborated in the growth of this company with the blood and sweat of their hands, some with death.
5. The land that we claim is land that is not useful for large sugar cane production. It is a mountainous zone and we live by hunting, gathering and gardening.

We hope you are able to understand this situation and that though we are not listened to here, you are able to here us. We have gone through years of struggle, pressure, persecutions and constraints for asking for what is ours, but it is our conviction that keeps us strong.

Cordially,

Indigenous Community Guarani Estacion El Tabacal
Personeria Juridica nro. 16 ­ INAI

President: Monica Romero
Cacique (leader): Eleuterio Soruco
Vicepresident: Haidee Cunandipa.

cguaranieltabacal@yahoo.com.ar

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