Mapuche Land Rights in Patagonia

Last updated July 2024

The Mapuche are the original inhabitants of Argentina’s Patagonia region. Over decades of conquest, thousands of Indigenous people were killed, leaving only 120,000 Mapuche in Argentina. Many of those not killed have been displaced, particularly over the past several decades, as foreign individuals and corporations have purchased large plots of ancestral Mapuche lands. In recent years, Mapuche communities have sought to recover this territory, in some cases through land occupation and in others through legal processes. State forces and private individuals have retaliated by stigmatizing, displacing, killing, and disappearing members of the Mapuche community.

Over two trips in 2023, Wesleyan students and University Network supervisors traveled to Patagonia to investigate the land and human rights abuses against the Mapuche. The fact-finding team interviewed leaders, human rights attorneys, and officials, as well as victims and their family members. Students continue working on a report of the situation of Mapuche communities in Patagonia. The report will serve as an advocacy tool for Mapuche communities facing abuses and fighting to reclaim their traditional lands.