The Cordoba Court ruling in favor of 40 peasant families convicted of usurping their own fields
Dario Aranda
Page 12
The Supreme Court of Justice of Cordoba ruled in favor of a farming community who had been condemned as usurpers of land where they have always lived. The ruling, which retrieves the arguments of a civil judge, feel jurisprudence.
The Superior Court of Justice in Córdoba issued a landmark ruling on the rights of rural families. In a conflict Northwestern Córdoba, eight peasants accused acquitted of "usurpation" of a territory that always used and, in a legal paradigm shift, a priority of ownership of ancestral land rights over a businessman who had bought the land. "It's a landmark ruling because the Supreme Court recognizes the peasant land rights and possessory rights of rural families over the supposed rights of a private who comes to a place and intends to wipe out families with ancestral possession and end a way community life, "said Ramiro Frese, lawyer of the Peasant Movement of Cordoba (MCC), and recalled that Argentina is repeated throughout the conflict" and the judiciary, especially the interior, often denied the peasants and indigenous rights, recognized by national and international law. "
El Chacho is a village northwest of Cordoba, the border with La Rioja. Calles earth, intense heat, very little water. In the zone no soy, but the running of monoculture on other areas of provinces led the advance of livestock on places before despised by business, and historically held by peasants.
In 2004, a dispute as repetitive as valid. An entrepreneur (Martín Rodolfo Butti) claimed as its own field of 2700 hectares of community use of farm families and required them to pay monthly grazing animals. The conflict came to a civil trial, which in 2006 ruled in favor of the 40 peasant families, they should not pay for grazing, on the understanding that possession was a "community" of families living for generations in El Chacho.
But it also initiated a criminal case. Judge of the Criminal Chamber of Cruz del Eje, Ricardo Py, sentenced in 2008 to imprisonment of eight peasants as "usurpation" of the land where they have always lived, worked and raised livestock. He also requested that the field passed into the hands of Butti. The appeal, by Frese and Mariana Romano, came to the High Court of Justice of the province.
"acquit is available for the crime of usurpation, ruled unanimously last Friday of the highest court of Cordoba and marked at its base case:" The title deed (land) does not establish possession (...) And them must be added the situation that arises in the north of Cordoba against ancestral owners, the vast majority are poor and poorly educated, and lack of land titles, resulting in legal uncertainty for them. "
and attacks squarely against the classic situation that exists in the area of \u200b\u200bArgentina, where private exhibit titles and dubious claim dislodge the ancestral owners. "There is nothing conclusive evidence Butti possession of the property, it is not provided evidence of objective acts that demonstrate, for example, that animals have there own or have performed work of clearing and fence," founded the High Court.
Justice appreciated the arguments of the civil court of first instance (Fernando Aguado) and reversed the argument of the first criminal court: "The field in question was used, operated and owned by the plaintiffs (farmers). So what to be drawn is, in any case, it was Butti who committed a disturbance of such possession to order entry the same of his employees. "and stressed that the presence of animals in farming households, as well as carrying out work on the farm" attend to support the version of the peasants in the sense of having played as long as owners of the land " .
Roque Farías always lived there with his family, and recalled that his grandmother Adolia (d. 2009) was born on the same land his great-grandchildren now living. Similar life histories Valley credited Graciela Arevalo, Maria Clara Farias, Ramón Nicolás Fernández, Ernesto Fernández Santos, Thomas Cornelius Silva, Marta and Ricardo Ugine Cuebas. Since none should go to prison. And along with 32 other families, may continue to use the community plots.
The trial judge had condemned that farm families have changed the locks of the field. I even used it as an act of "usurpation." The Supreme Court understood the fact the exact opposite way: "You have misinterpreted the evidence that changing the lock on the gate was an act of theft of property instead of a lawful act of defense of possession of the property that defendants already had. " Legitimized the practice of defending the right of possession, and fundamentals: "In a situation of anguish at the prospect of having to make a payment for your small economy was not prepared, secured the permanence of their animals while they resolve the conflict. This reveals the absence of malice. "
In Argentina Civil Code governs the" right veinteañal, which legislates that after twenty years of public ownership, peaceful and uninterrupted, the occupant who gave the land to productive use, has rights over the place. But the judiciary often denied this right and privilege the title of one who never lived or worked the land.
"It's a landmark decision for the peasant struggle because it recognizes rights acquired by families for generations live and work their rightful land beyond any title. It is a warning to judges dictating arbitrary and unfair decisions affecting basic human rights of the poor people, "said Frese.
El Movimiento Campesino de Córdoba (which includes the National Peasant Movement" Via Campesina Indígena) estimated that in the north of the province there are at least 100 land conflicts.
Although historically rural areas made progress on the MCC explains that land conflicts have multiplied in the hands of soybean development in the province. The National Movement Indian Farmer (where the MCC is one of their organizations founding) states that in the last decade were evicted at least 200 peasant families and indigenous point as the main cause to current agribusiness model.
****************** Original source: http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/sociedad/3-168243-2011- 05-16.html
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