Malón de la Paz

The Malón de la Paz was a march of indigenous peoples of northwestern Argentina to the capital, Buenos Aires, demanding the restitution of their ancient lands, in 1946. The participants marched about 2,000 km to present their claims to President Juan Perón.

Malón is an Argentine Spanish word derived from Mapudungun malok, "invade". It refers to a surprise incursion, as often conducted by aboriginals when attacking creole settlements. The expression Malón de la Paz therefore means "Peace Incursion"; it is a kind of oxymoron. It was coined by one of the initial organizers of the march, the retired military engineer Mario Augusto Bertonasco.

The lands originally inhabited by indigenous peoples in Argentina were almost completely occupied by the initial European settlers and by their descendants. In some regions the aboriginals were assimilated as cheap workforce for creole landowners; in others they were displaced and then exterminated (see Conquest of the Desert).

Near the end of his term, President Hipólito Yrigoyen planned to expropriate lands and grant them to their former aboriginal inhabitants, but a coup in 1930 ousted him and killed the project.

On 31 August 1945, Kolla communities in the northwestern Argentine provinces of Jujuy and Salta, through a group of representatives, sent a note to the National Agrarian Council demanding the restitution of their lands, in compliance with previous laws. On 17 January 1946 President Edelmiro Julián Farrell signed the expropriation decree. But as funds for the necessary land surveys and paperwork were in progress, the direction of the Council passed to other people, who blocked them.

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