Genocide in Patagonia?

The  drama of the peoples of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego exterminated by the governments of Chile and Argentina. Their struggle, tragedy and survival.

D.Antón

Onas (Selknam), Yagan, Kawaskar and Alakaluf, were indigenous nations that inhabited the southern tip of South America and lived by fishing, hunting seals, guanacos, tucutucus and birds,

They survived in a harsh environment and developed complex cosmogonies related to the sites where they lived their existences in harmony with nature..

Their peaceful life ended in the late Nineteenth century and early Twentieth century when the governments of Chile and Argentina decided to occupy their territories.

In a few years the armies invaded, stripped them of their land, sometimes they were "hunted" like animals, a number were kidnapped and exposed in "human zoos" in Europe.

Cruelty and disregard for their basic rights has been one of the most infamous episodes that are known in the history of the colonization of America.

These operations were conducted by the governments of Argentina and Chile which today boast of their "sovereignty" over these territories.

In a few years, thousands of native people in the South were reduced to a few individuals. Healthy people were impoverished, disoriented, orphans in a land that had been theirs for thousands of years.

Oddly enough, after decades of physical and cultural aggression, there are still Selknam families, and Kawaskar families in several communities in southern Patagonia and even a few descendants of Yagans of Tierra del Fuego. They have survived despite the discriminatory policies that persist in these two countries.

Human zoos in Europe