Our Land (2025) Movie Script
1
Come on!
Good pass.
Come on!
- Come on.
- Now.
- Go, go, go.
- Coming in!
Come on.
Oh, girl.
Good pass.
Almost, Anglica.
POLICE
We are gathered in this trial
that the Province of Tucumn carries
against Luis Humberto Gmez,
Eduardo Jos del Milagro Valdivieso Sassi,
and Daro Luis Amn,
for aggravated attempted homicide
in real concurrence
and illegal possession of firearms.
Mr. Luis Humberto Gmez,
please come forward.
They are bringing you a chair.
- Do you have any children?
- I do, three.
How old are they?
They are of legal age.
Any addictions?
None.
- Do you drink?
- No cigarettes, no alcohol, no drugs.
- Any other pending cases?
- None.
- Any convictions?
- None.
- No pending cases?
- None.
Very well.
Daro Luis Amn.
How old are you, sir?
I'm forty-five.
What do you do?
I work for the Honorable Legislature.
Where?
Historical Heritage.
Eduardo Jos del Milagro Valdivieso Sassi.
What do you do?
I am a retired police officer
and a farmer.
- Any pending criminal cases?
- No pending cases.
Any previous convictions?
None.
It might be appropriate
that I now clarify
what the long-standing relationship is
that I have
with the two co-defendants in the case.
Valdivieso and I worked together
in the police force.
Well, many here have a friend
who always tags along.
For me, that's him.
Wherever I went, he would come.
So, I invited him.
I met Daro Amn about 20 years ago.
We then developed a relationship
that went beyond the personal.
It consisted in contributing
a certain amount of capital,
to carry out a mining venture
that we were developing.
That day we had a camera
because we had to take pictures
of what we needed to do...
to start a mining path,
and what materials we...
To see whether we needed a bulldozer
or any other thing
to start the path again
since many years had passed.
They started taking pictures.
I asked who these people were.
I was told they were locals.
They took photos of us.
I asked why they were photographing
the license plate and whatnot.
And they said
that they were Indigenous, allegedly,
and wanted to take over
a property
that supposedly belonged to Amn.
I backed away, avoided the conflict,
went down with Daro,
and that's when they surrounded us,
attack us, I was clearly attacked.
I felt like death was there.
They were never aware of the fact
that I have a mother and two kids.
They publicly called me "the murderer."
And they labeled me as "the murderer."
They labeled me as "the murderer."
And I was not on trial yet.
And I'm not a murderer either!
I was home.
I am no criminal. I am a family man.
I'm a farmer,
my kids attend a religious school.
It's not as the prosecutor said.
I'm not a crook,
nor a paramilitary task force member.
I have nothing to do with that.
I have honorable friends,
I cannot be accused like this.
The prosecutor inquires why we were armed.
I would ask instead:
"Who prohibits that I carry a gun?"
Us police officers
do not lose our status as officers.
I am proud to be a retired police officer.
Thank God I had a gun,
or I wouldn't be here to explain.
It's recording now.
Hold it for me.
Who's in charge here?
No one is in charge here.
- No one?
- No one.
Fine, then. See you later. Take care.
Put the...
You need to drive down the hill.
- No.
- What?
- I mean, you have to...
- No.
- Are you driving up?
- Yeah.
Be careful with...
the ravine.
Are you recording?
- Their faces, I mean.
- Yeah, man.
- Point it at them, keep your cool.
- I see them.
Kick the four-wheel drive in.
- They're taking pictures.
- Yeah, let them.
What for? No one at the court
listens to them anymore.
POLICE
Today, here in this place,
where chief Javier Chocobar
was murdered nine years ago
there will be an official re-enactment
conducted by the jury.
The Forensic Investigation from the Prosecutor's Office
is handling all the technical aspects
besides security that is handled
by members of the police force...
We were coming through here
in our Land Rover, at 6 p.m.
Daro Amn was driving, I was to his right
and Valdivieso was in the back.
Here, we made the first visual contact
with these people, who were over there.
I waved from my seat,
they didn't respond, so we kept going.
When we got here, by that post
was a gate and a sign that said:
"No Trespassing. Chuschagasta Community."
Something like that.
I saw in the rearview mirror
people were approaching from behind.
So when we all realize, I tell them both:
"Don't step out of the car
because they might think
that if it's three of us,
we are looking for some kind of trouble."
So, I got out all by myself
and went to meet them.
I say: "Good afternoon.
Who is in charge here?"
Making these gestures.
"Who is in charge here?"
So they... Go on please, walk past me
as closely as you can.
That's it.
So they replied: "No one is in charge,
this belongs to the community."
What did I do in response?
"Very well, then. Good afternoon!"
And doing nothing else,
we turned around and drove away.
And that's the end of that scene.
Valdivieso said: "I will take a nap."
Our intention was to make it
to the mining path.
I suggest you stand there,
I'll point that way and behind my back.
Okay.
When we saw that people were coming down,
I told Daro to start recording
and let me do the talking.
And they gestured like this.
You stand there.
You can clearly see it in the video.
So, they forced me to turn around.
You three, walk over there
gesticulating like this.
- This way?
- Same as in the video.
- Like this?
- Yes, exactly.
I told them: "I don't want any trouble."
"I will report you all
to the authorities."
He then came up to me, saying:
"What are you gonna do?"
- Do it, please.
- Hands outward.
- Good.
- That's it.
So I was now seeing
that he was holding a rock,
and I was not sure about the other.
But I couldn't let anybody
grab me like this.
So, when he did that, I acted on instinct.
- I did that.
- Here, take it. The gun.
I won't do it again.
What I did was part of my training.
It's natural.
The Argentine State trained me to do that.
The Argentine State.
I drew my weapon and kept it down.
Or they would have killed me.
That's what I thought.
I kept talking to them.
I kept talking.
Do you believe in God?
Do you have any religious beliefs
or any other belief
on which you could swear?
Do you swear to tell the truth,
on your honor?
Were you able to attend school?
PUBLIC PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
Mr. Cata.
What was your relationship
with Mr. Chocobar?
He's my maternal half-brother.
Where do you live?
In El Chorro, within the territory
of the Chuschagasta Indigenous Community.
The quarry
is at the center of the territory.
Who are you and why do you come here?
We are the Amn family, don't you know?
We are the Amn family.
You have no business here.
So you say, tell me who you are.
- We are a community.
- An Indigenous community.
And we are asserting our rights, so...
OK. Relax, calm down.
If we talk, we might understand
each other. Or maybe not.
So I say, let's talk,
and we might understand each other.
If we don't talk, we might not.
You know there is a court order.
I don't mean to hurt you,
but if I report what you're doing,
we will all get in trouble.
- It's OK.
- What are we doing?
What is it that we are doing?
- What is it?
- Man.
Stay cool, brother.
Don't you threaten me. I'm being polite.
Who do you think you are?
What's going on?
I will fuck you up!
No!
Stop it, man. Stop!
Stop it, man!
That's Javier, see?
That's my brother.
And this is Javier's brother.
That was in the city,
when they were harvesting.
Cutting sugar cane.
What you see there is a pen.
This one is from when Javier was drafted.
He served for three months.
On account of his good behavior.
That was the fashion back then.
The jacket and...
the sunglasses.
That's a small badge, like a button.
The Argentine badge
like the ones that the kids
wear on their school uniforms.
He would carry the pen around,
I don't know why.
They used to wear jackets, suits.
They went on horseback.
They went dancing.
Chacarera, zamba, gato,
escondido, bailecito.
Those dances were frequent here.
There are still. Chamam, pasodoble.
That girl who is dancing
was a member of his family.
He was single. We were not dating yet.
He ironed his handkerchief himself.
With the corners out. Really tidy.
They used to dress up a lot back then.
All these were taken with his camera.
He took pictures of everything.
It was a white camera,
I don't remember well.
He already had it when we got married.
There is a tree over there.
He would send a message calling me.
My dad didn't know,
he worked harvesting sugar cane, too.
He would go cut cane with my mom.
My brother and I stayed home.
He would send me letters
through his sister,
saying he wanted to see me
and I would go right away.
No talking, he'd just stare at me
for a little while,
and then we would leave,
we wouldn't talk much.
That's the day after I got married.
I was 21.
I wore a little suit.
I don't know the name of that fabric,
it was light blue.
It wasn't thin, it was rather thick.
And what is this one?
That's what he looked like when we met.
Your dad and me.
Javier got up every morning
to go cut cane,
until 8 a.m., then he'd come back,
have breakfast and go back until 12 p.m.
And around 9 p.m., he'd already be in bed.
And he would get up again at 2 a.m.
He would go
when the moon was shining bright.
But if there was no moon, he wouldn't go.
He'd just go the following day.
That's Gabriel when he was a baby.
He was angry.
So I laid him down
and Javier took the photo.
He took photos of all the kids.
Women were not so much into photographs.
Men were.
"You've kept the best one
for yourself," he used to say.
He was a jokester.
He made saddles, you know?
Headstalls, reins, all that.
They sold well.
The festival of...
What was it called?
Festival, Festival of...
Tradition!
We are...
The Hope of Chamam!
We come from up there
where the air is pure.
For all of you, we bring the rhythm of...
chamam!
And it goes like this!
Let's hear that sapucai, gauchos!
You are Delfn Cata, is that right sir?
That's me.
You were taking photos.
What is that camera?
That camera
belonged to a community member.
A camera that uses film.
See you later. Take care.
They're taking pictures.
You are recording, right?
- Their faces, I mean.
- Yes, man.
- Point it at them, keep your cool.
- I see them.
Daro Amn was recording that day.
He had the video camera and a revolver.
That's Uncle Javier.
That's Andrs.
Emilio, that's me,
and the one coming down here is Beto.
Beto Cata.
That's Nico, Adriana's son.
That's Lucrecia, Delfn Cata's daughter.
That's Francisca.
And that's Uncle Javier standing there.
Why take photos? No one at the court
listens to them anymore.
If we talk, we might understand
each other. Or maybe not.
So I say, let's talk,
and we might understand each other.
Or we might not.
You know there is a court order...
Uncle Javier is coming from the back.
He's coming down over there.
Who do you think you are?
We were wrestling with Gmez
and I went like...
Excuse me.
Like this.
So I picked up the gun
and flung it over there.
Where was Javier?
Javier was lying over there.
And that's when he said:
"Turk, you motherfucker. You shot me."
This memorial wasn't here.
Then I heard another shot.
Gmez didn't have the gun anymore.
And then, Gmez tried to escape
and he fell here.
A little farther ahead.
There.
That's when Gmez reached for his ankle.
So, I pulled on his leg like this
and I took his other gun.
Gmez was disarmed.
I flung it far.
Over there.
Please state your full name, please.
Alberto Orlando Cata.
How old are you?
Twenty-two.
What do you do?
I'm an athlete.
- I can't hear you.
- I'm an athlete.
- An athlete?
- Yes.
- Were you able to attend school?
- Yes.
- How far did you get?
- High school.
- Did you graduate?
- Yes.
I was standing here,
and my uncle came this way.
So I saw Amn shooting from over there.
Around here.
- Amn was there.
- Right.
- Go on. Lead the way.
- Uh-huh.
He came from the back.
I turned around
and I saw Valdivieso coming.
I am aware that the weapons
have been seized...
Could you please
show them to the plaintiff?
We have never seen them.
- Of course.
- If we may.
Are they unloaded, Mr. Secretary?
- Hold them downwards, please.
- Very well.
A Taurus .40 pistol,
a Beretta, 9mm caliber
and a .32 revolver.
I drop the gun and all I manage to do
is run over here.
I go look for Valdivieso.
And then I pass out.
I can't remember anything else.
Four people, please.
Stand here.
Someone, stand here.
Someone behind me, please.
From the sides, they kicked my gut.
The guy behind me
hit my head with a stick.
I got up and warned them
they would kill me.
I fire and shout: "Stop! Police!"
"You're gonna kill him! Enough!"
"I'm a police officer.
What are you doing?"
I turn around.
A fat one starts strangling me.
I thought I'd get shot
from the way they were punching me.
So I stay down, and when I get up,
there was silence,
and blood is coming over my eyes.
It's true that they received blows,
but no gunshots.
We could have done the same as them,
with the same weapons.
But we didn't...
Javier received a fatal shot
and lost his life.
Emilio got shot in the shin,
which broke his leg.
And Andrs was shot in the abdomen.
Right when the trial began,
he started feeling unwell
and they found a tumor in his head.
He wants to speak,
some words come out right,
but he cannot express what he feels,
what he wants to say.
Meanwhile, we kept waiting for the trial
against these crooks.
Nine years.
Yes, nine years
until the trial finally took place.
CHUSCHAGASTA COMMUNITY
Javier Chocobar!
Now and forever!
WE DEMAND PROSECUTOR DEMITRI'S RESIGNATION
See? He has a pen there too.
In his shirt pocket.
It was Manolo's birthday.
They popped the piata.
This is Chanito, he was so little!
Chanito.
What was this old man's name?
He was always around.
When they branded cattle,
he would play music.
He was friends with Javier.
Mariela, Gabriel's wife, baked the cake.
She bakes.
The whole family is in that photo,
everyone wanted to be in the picture.
Javier is playing the old man's accordion.
I was here when they came.
Javier told me he'd walk down
to the plot with the rest and come back.
And that's when I heard a gunshot.
I fell down, got up, fell down and got up...
They said
I was rolling around and screaming.
I don't remember anything.
"Mama, let's go home,
Dad's already dead," they said.
I kept repeating: "No, he is not dead."
They couldn't take me away.
I was there, holding onto him.
This news story begins
with a brutal armed confrontation
between two gangs
in the town of Chuscha,
in the Trancas department.
As a consequence, a man died
and three people were injured.
In the afternoon...
Why were you there?
We were looking after our land.
To prevent strangers from taking it.
Since when have you been
looking after the land?
We used to live there.
Our ancestors, my grandfather,
my great-grandfather.
How old are you, sir?
Forty-six.
Have you been looking after the land
for 46 years?
Even before that.
- Counsel, the prosecutor is right.
- Long before that.
- It is not relevant.
- No, it's not.
He said he had always lived there,
his grandparents, too.
I want to know how long
they have been protecting the land.
Then ask him that specifically.
Since when have you been gathering around
in that area or at the gate
to protect the land?
"We did not have weapons,
we acted peacefully from the beginning
to prevent them from taking control."
"But problems arose
and they began to shoot."
"We had to defend ourselves
with sticks and stones."
Truth is...
yes, with stones, because the truth is we...
we didn't have any weapons.
Do you know me, sir?
No.
I want you to look at me.
Do you know the defendants?
Whom you mentioned as Amn,
the one wearing the white cap,
and the gray-haired one.
I know him.
- Who is he?
- Daro Amn.
And in that sector to your right,
do you know anybody?
- The question from the defense...
- That's up to our defense.
I won't discuss my strategy with you.
- But the question...
- It won't cause any harm.
So as not to be repetitive,
do you have good eyesight?
- Excuse me?
- If you have good eyesight.
- Do you wear glasses?
- No, I don't. I have good eyesight.
When you saw Mr. Amn,
was he standing, sitting, kneeling?
He was standing.
And, when my uncle came by,
he pointed the weapon at him
and fired, I saw him...
Who determined Mr. Chocobar was dead?
You said you saw
Mr. Valdivieso firing his gun.
I did.
- When was that?
- It was...
When in your story?
I'd say, when people were...
Closer to the microphone.
People were retreating, and he aimed
towards the people who were climbing,
to reach another path farther up.
- He aimed towards people.
- Yes.
Do you remember the statement
you gave to the police after the event?
Excuse me, I consider
the defense attorney's remarks
are witness harassment.
This is an oral debate!
And this is what oral proceedings are for.
So that the witnesses
can explain in detail,
not to repeat verbatim
what they told a computer...
I request the floor.
I do not intend
to intimidate the witness, Your Honor.
His previous statement was different.
He was 13 years old, he was a minor.
Based on what he says now,
I hereby request a confrontation.
You get me?
And there was no weapon in my hand
because you stole it
from me and took it away.
You hear me? The weapon is a pistol.
- What's it like?
- The weapon was...
- You say you know it so well.
- ...a small weapon...
You're wrong, my weapon is big!
You're dead wrong, it's big!
It's a big pistol!
- Be respectful, Mr. Valdivieso.
- Don't raise your voice.
- All right.
- I haven't given you the floor.
- I apologize, Your Honor.
- Be respectful.
The weapon...
It wasn't big, it was...
If you know the weapon...
I would like the Court to show the weapons
and see if he recognizes...
No, address him, not the Court.
And when you were leaving...
- No interruptions.
- ...you came back, so I found it.
My weapon?
- Well...
- My weapon?
Was it my weapon?
Why didn't you pick up another weapon?
- Because...
- Why?
- Why would I?
- So, why take my weapon?
- Excuse me?
- Why take my other weapon, then?
So you don't mess up again like--
You're saying I picked up a weapon
and that I messed up...
You say I presumably picked up a weapon.
What weapon did I pick up?
Do you think that,
had I found another gun,
I'd leave without my gun,
which you stole from me?
Why were you there?
I asked him why he was there.
It won't do any harm, answer.
Why were you in that place?
Do you believe in God?
Do you swear to tell the truth,
so help you God?
You said that you got together
in order to protect the land.
Why did you think that someone
would take over your land?
How many families live there?
Did you ever think
of defending yourselves?
Stick to the facts, counsel.
Did you know
that the land belonged to Amn?
I'll be straightforward.
Why were you there that day
instead of being home
drinking mate tea or sowing the land?
An athlete
from the town of Trancas, La Higuera!
Coming in, athlete number 20
from La Higuera!
Representing Trancas!
Come on.
Here.
I really liked
doing that, taking pictures.
Fly away, little one.
When I served in the military,
I had several photos taken.
I wanted to keep a record,
so it wouldn't fade away.
I had one of those cardboard cameras.
Nowadays, the phone helps.
But in the community,
not all of us have good phones.
I took these photos to keep a record
of the times of trouble
that the community was going through.
Like when Daro Amn built that shack.
Chief Balderrama is showing the injunction
asking them to leave the community
as they were not allowed there.
People were tired of lawsuits.
We had to defend ourselves somehow,
how did we do it?
By filing reports.
Whether they did something about it
or not,
without a report, there's no evidence.
Realizing that you are...
erm...
a descendant of our ancestors
hasn't been easy for me.
But I finally did realize.
We don't come from far away.
We're not from Germany,
we don't come from the U.S.,
we don't come from Italy.
Here, our grandparents,
great-grandparents, parents...
and us, we were all born here,
and our children are being born here.
These are the steps to follow
to build a case file.
You need to analyze the problem
and see where to elevate it.
Whether it's the local Congress,
or the Prosecutor's Office
or some other institution,
like the Land Registry Office.
Meaning, wherever the complaint
needs to be addressed.
And always better if it's signed
by the entire community,
but it doesn't end there.
'Cause if you don't follow up,
they will shelve it,
new files come in and it gets buried
and then nobody can find it.
Day after day, endless commutes.
They'd tell us to go back
the following week, month, 15 days...
I... constantly followed up
on that that file, periodically,
in order to make progress.
Sometimes, also,
you have to send them something
like a chicken, a gift,
for those at the front desk
because they are the ones
who really control the case files.
Right.
Sometimes they understand
because they are workers
and people like us.
Right.
There's another important thing.
When the counterparty
asks to talk,
that's not good for the community.
Yes, communication is important,
but it's not convenient for us
because if we agree to talk,
we know we'll end up losing,
because we'll have to concede something.
Dialogue means giving up something.
Which means giving up a part of the land.
Let's give a warm welcome to our pilgrims,
to the gaucho troop
from Chuscha and La Higuera.
They brought their figurines.
It's a day for family, a day for faith.
My dad was from Chasquivil.
My mom was from Rodeo Grande.
I don't know what the processions
were like back then,
the Lord of Health, all that...
My mom and dad met there
and they got married.
Happy Day of the Virgin to everyone.
This procession was in Anca Juli.
I'm not sure what part exactly,
or what saint they were carrying.
That's my dad
playing the drum and probably singing.
They must be singing coplas.
His grandparents were from Amaicha.
My grandfather used to say
he was the son of Indigenous peoples.
But my grandmother, Pistn,
she said she was mixed blood.
We are not pure, I guess.
This one is the oldest.
That's the first house
they had in Anca Juli.
It was more like a small shed,
made of cane and sticks.
My mom is holding my hand.
Women came and asked her
to make them a dress, a skirt, a blouse.
"That's how I learned to sew,"
my mom used to say.
She would wash the fabric and then measure
the shoulders, the inseam.
All of that.
My mom used to assist in births.
In emergencies,
I stepped in, I helped with three.
But I only helped them come out.
I cut the umbilical cord,
helped with the placenta,
no more than that.
This is Silvia.
She wasn't their biological child.
Her mother left her at home as a baby
so the judge told my parents
to register her as their own.
That's me.
"Chuscha" means thick hair.
It's a word...
an Indigenous word, I was told.
My family always received visitors.
The hunters would come,
one would tell the other, and so on.
They spoke well of my parents.
They brought their photo cameras,
those small, square ones.
They'd give them to my mom as a gift.
And so, they made friends.
We are six.
The eldest was Antonia, Braulio,
Luisa, Francisco, Delfina and myself.
Mom and Dad taught us to be articulate.
Not to just stand there in silence.
They used to tell us
we had Indigenous heritage.
"The children of Indians."
Indigenous peoples were not liked.
It was embarrassing
because it was derogative
to call somebody "Indian."
There were problems.
My dad used to tell me that.
He went to trial, I remember.
They wanted him to pay to work the land.
He had to pay with labor.
Working for them,
but without compensation.
If he refused, they would threaten,
erm,
to take away a year-old animal
and give him two newborns instead.
So, the way I see it, it was like a scam
because he didn't know if those newborns
would grow up healthy,
whereas he'd give the boss
an animal that was already a year old.
My mom didn't like
having problems with anybody.
So she asked my dad to come
and find a place to move.
It made me very sad to leave
the place where I was born,
where I grew up,
where I had everything.
We packed everything up in boxes.
There were no roads, no paths whatsoever.
We carried all by mule.
It took us about three or four months.
The goats, the sheep,
the cows, the horses.
We had to carry it all. Even the chickens.
Meanwhile, we built the house here
cutting the adobe
and the straw to make the roof.
First a bedroom,
then, a kitchen resembling a small hut.
We did it together, as a family.
That's how it came together.
You know, you see these like this,
quite weathered,
but they are here.
I've kept them.
I don't know what will happen
when I die, what will happen to these.
What they'll do with them.
That's what happened.
There is a historian who clearly states
that they disappeared in 1807.
Let's be very clear about that.
Great.
I have a blind faith in justice
and also in the justice of God.
I believe that my son,
after seven years
of seeing a psychiatrist...
Both of them, actually,
my grandson as well...
It's very hard for a mother to see
your son hurting and in such bad shape...
The lands absolutely have...
a deed and a title.
They were bought at a judicial auction
from the National Bank.
They have perfect legal titles.
That's why I was able to register
as a mining entrepreneur.
In 2006, I offered them one acre each,
total ownership,
but not as an Indigenous community,
and they said no.
I offered work in the quarry,
they said they were on welfare.
They received a payment
of 200 pesos a month
and in the quarry we offered 600 per week.
But no one wanted to work.
How can anyone even imagine
that if I wished to kill someone,
I would shoot them in the leg?
It's way easier to lift the weapon
six inches and hit the abdomen.
Or nine more and hit the chest.
Twelve more and hit the head.
But of course: "Who is the author?"
"Luis Gmez." "Why?"
"Whatever, he's paramilitary
and he's this and that," and so on.
The truth will be revealed.
We had genuine interest in going
and I was not, in any way,
a hitman, as the lawyers say.
I have genuine interest.
Daro Amn and myself formed an LLC
before the event even took place.
So they can't say that we went
to evict them carrying weapons.
They were living there together with us.
Some were born and raised there,
they are still there!
Nobody was looking to evict them.
Here, we are all equal under the law.
So, the whole thing
about being Indigenous, not Indigenous...
The Vikings were Indigenous too
and today we travel to their country,
and it is the First World.
Thank you, Your Honor.
What did "Campo Amigo LLC" mean?
It was the combination
of the two surnames.
"Ami" for Amn, and "go" for Gmez.
The purpose was to exploit that quarry.
The video captures the entire event.
Not only do the images capture it,
but so does the audio recording.
What was Gmez's threat?
"I'll bring you to justice."
Not, "I'll take a gun and shoot you."
Gmez had been carrying a gun since 1979.
He is the founder of Grupo Cero
in Tucumn.
A task force which trained abroad.
Consequently, had Gmez intended to kill,
he would have done so.
What's going on?
I will fuck you up!
We are trained to develop
different brain hemispheres.
What does this mean?
I can talk, think, look,
and analyze at the same time.
Speech is controlled by one part,
thought by another part,
and my movements by another part.
If I don't learn to do two or three
things at the same time,
I won't have...
what I need to be in a special task force.
Out of 100 people who enroll
in a special forces course,
only three to five graduate,
eight at most.
In that sense, I ask you this:
couldn't Gmez have backed up,
walking backwards without losing sight
of the people coming his way?
Couldn't he have moved away...?
Walking backwards is impossible
on the surface I see.
We have a technique to move backwards
where we drag one leg.
If I may, I'll show you our technique
to avoid tripping while walking backwards.
Amn decides to turn to Gmez.
He sees that the legal methods
are going nowhere,
so, at some point, he resolves
to do this through other means.
He doesn't call
an engineer or a geologist.
No, he calls a retired police officer
who, at 31, had been formally accused
eight times of illegal coercion,
threats, robbery, fraud,
aggravated robbery on two occasions
and of very serious injuries.
Gmez brings Valdivieso along.
"The operation is today at 4 p.m.
"Don't tell Mom. I'm shaking all over,
but I trust Luis."
"I trust Luis, four more cops are coming."
"Don't say a word,
only you and I know."
This is a text message
that Amn sent to his brother.
Are you friends or enemies
with the parties in this trial?
I have been a friend of the mother
for 35 years.
Of Mr. Amn's mother?
And I've known the kids
since they were little.
Do you have any interest
in the outcome of the trial?
Only for justice to be served,
nothing personal.
Were the slabs located
within Amn's claimed property?
They were.
As a land surveyor,
along with my topographer,
we took measurements and determined
that the place was within the property.
- Did you see those papers?
- I did.
There were clear legal titles
for that property.
I can attest they are the owners.
Have you seen a house there?
I know people lived further up, yes.
When you say further up, how far exactly?
I can't say.
I can't say.
An estimate.
I have no idea.
I haven't analyzed that.
What do you do?
- I'm a public servant.
- Where?
In the Choromoro rural community.
Please state if you are certain
of who the owners of the property are.
The Amn family.
How do you know
that it belongs to the Amn family?
I'm 47, for as long as I can remember,
I've known the property belongs to them.
Right, but how?
Because of what people say...
People say they own it.
Is the last witness your brother?
- A relative?
- He is my brother.
- Your brother. What do you do?
- I'm a public servant.
Where?
The rural community of Anca Juli.
Let me ask you, if you live there...
You said you were born and raised there.
Is it a choice whether to belong
to the community or not?
I've never been...
I've never agreed
to be part of the community.
So simply living there
and being born there
doesn't make you a member.
- I'm not a member.
- You are not.
- I'm not.
- What about other people?
Do you understand the question?
For example, if a child of yours is born,
are they part or should they do something
to become a member?
- Of the Chuscha community where I live?
- Yes.
I'm part of the community
because I live there.
But I don't belong
to the Chuschagasta Community.
Do you need to enroll or...?
Do you need to engage in activities?
What do you need to do
to be part of the community?
Do you have to share
the work and the yield?
I don't understand.
You are from there.
I was never part
of the Chuschagasta Indigenous Community
as they call themselves.
Honestly, I don't know
if they are truly a community.
I was never a part of it.
Is it by birth or by choice?
Do you understand what I'm asking?
No, no, it's by...
It's by choice.
It's optional.
Mrs. Chiarello.
Silvia Chiarello.
What do you do?
I'm retired but I still work
at the Anca Juli rural community
- I keep collaborating...
- Retired from what?
The Ministry of Interior.
Do you know the parties in the trial?
Only Mr. Amn.
Do you have a friendship, an enmity,
or a vested interest
in the outcome of the case?
None. Absolutely none.
- Madam President?
- Yes?
- Regarding the witness...
- Yes.
The complaints filed against her
are still active.
Let me repeat the question:
- Are you a friend or enemy...?
- No.
- Do you have a stake in either party?
- None.
But I do have to say--
- Are you being sued by a party?
- Yes.
- That part is true.
- Let's see.
The Chuschagasta Community
is suing my brother and me
before the Federal Court.
- What is your brother's name?
- Dante Chiarello.
Are you in any territorial dispute
with the community?
- Maybe a border issue...
- No, none whatsoever.
We have always lived in peace and harmony.
Everybody knows what the limits are,
where the borders are.
They were always good, hardworking people,
just normal folks, equals.
We are all equal.
So, everyone did their thing,
focused on their own work.
But fundamentally, good people.
Yet the community filed the complaint
against you?
Saying that we weren't the rightful owners
and that we were usurping
was an euphemism.
They called us crooks,
abusers, oppressors.
And for me personally,
when I was the commissioner,
who voted for me to win?
Who voted for me to win?
And I've won many times
with the people's vote,
and my elections
were absolutely transparent,
just like my life, counsel.
Mrs. Chiarello was highly regarded
by Mr. Salvador.
He didn't know how to read,
he signed with his fingerprint.
For them, a person like that
was easy to deceive.
They befriend people, build rapport,
and then begin to inquire
about the state of the land, who owns it
and before you know it, it's too late.
If there is no further matter...
Indeed, counsel.
The defense was not informed at any time
that a movie was being filmed.
So, we are working in a kind of circus
for a movie to be made.
I think it would have been prudent
for all of us to have known
that a movie about the case
was being made,
so that this isn't regarded as a circus,
but treated with the seriousness
that this hearing deserves.
No one in this Court
or in this room gives this trial,
which has a unique importance
compared to other processes,
the treatment or tone of a circus.
Let me clarify that with all seriousness.
It's inappropriate to believe
that this Court behaves as such.
This courtroom is open,
as the law mandates,
during an oral and public trial.
It is not for us to decide
what press we like or not
in order to let them in.
In fact, I don't know
the names of the journalists,
nor what outlets they work for.
Never have I pondered life itself.
I only thought about
what I needed to get by.
Not about life itself.
Later on, I did.
As years went by,
I came to understand how I lived
and what life had been like for me.
I worked selling brooms.
And I also shined shoes.
If I made more than three pesos,
that was good money.
I gave it to my mother.
And if the weekend came
and I wanted to go to the movies,
or to the circus,
she would give me money for that.
My favorite was the one in Ben-Hur.
Charlton Heston.
When I was nine or ten, I lost my mother.
I was left like a ship without a rudder.
In her room,
I had dug up a hole and hidden a can.
When I returned every afternoon,
I would put the two or three pesos
I had left over in it.
I started saving.
Since the trains came into the station,
it was full of vendors.
I'd sell newspapers,
magazines, or even apples.
I remember that when I turned 13,
I started cutting sugar cane.
The closure will mean the loss of land
and the migration of thousands
of people from Tucumn
who won't be able to do anything
in the province...
I moved to Buenos Aires
after the sugar mills closed in 1966.
And there began
my pilgrimage to find work.
I moved to a boarding house.
There were many old boarding houses
that were inexpensive,
but you had to share
a room with five people
who would come for work and then stay.
I first worked with a Chilean,
then with someone from Tucumn.
"The kid knows a bit about plaster,
take him along."
"He's looking for a job."
"Alright, be ready tomorrow."
I made a fortune
building plaster wardrobes.
Of course, I liked making money,
but I also began to like the trade.
I didn't find it heavy going.
I had already done harder things.
That trade could lead me anywhere.
The bigger the town, the more work I had,
because there was more construction.
There were these Uruguayans
with whom I played soccer.
I told them I was from Tucumn,
so they called me "Diaguita."
That was the first time I thought
that I could be Indigenous.
The problem started in 1975
with the inflation and the price spikes.
To get away from it,
I decided to spend a month in Tucumn.
I came on my own, as I usually did.
Cirilo Balderrama.
My father.
I didn't know where he lived,
or who he was.
He sent me half a cheese wheel.
And I took it.
"Go meet him, he's your family,"
they said.
I was born in Zrate Norte,
right at the exit of San Pedro.
So I was familiar with the area.
Thanks to the directions I had,
I made it to Cirilo's house.
It wasn't a grand ceremony, so to speak.
We shook hands and that was it.
I had come just to meet him
and then leave.
But they mentioned some problems with Amn
who was charging grazing fees
and taking their animals away.
This is the remainder of La Higuera Estate
which was supposedly owned
by Francisco Colombres.
He would order:
"Go put a marker on that tree,
and on that other," and so on.
That's how they seized it.
They behaved like landowners,
but didn't have the deeds.
Part of this estate was sold over and over
until it landed
in the hands of the Amn family.
We spent more than 40 years
filing requests and writing letters
to different entities
asking to solve the land issues.
Everyone was getting lawsuits
and threats, eviction attempts.
They took everything they could.
They confiscated goats, cows, horses.
Later, they came for the crops.
We started sharing the harvest.
They did give us materials
to sow, it's true,
but they took advantage of people
and kept the harvest, the profits.
Cirilo, my father, told me,
they had spoken many times
to the Governor, Juri "the Turk,"
who said he would expropriate
the estate in favor of the people here.
They would not give up the land for free.
Payment was required.
The land was indeed expropriated,
but despite that,
they never handed it over.
I started investigating
until I got the plans
from the Bureau
of State-Owned Real Estate.
There, I saw that all the families
were located within government-owned land.
State-owned estate.
I already had a ticket
to go back to Buenos Aires.
I could have left them on their own,
said it was their problem.
But I felt that I was part of this.
So I decided to stay.
It's something intangible.
It's a feeling
that's been welling up inside me,
I don't know when.
Look up.
That painting shows
when the Indigenous
attempted to break into the city.
See how these angels
fought to keep the Indigenous out,
and they sent these beams
to scare them away.
Tucumn was inhabited
by different peoples.
They practiced agriculture,
but war was their passion.
They loved fighting.
It is also said they were good athletes.
Back then, the North of Argentina
was one big province
called Salta de Tucumn.
It was composed by Jujuy, Salta, Tucumn...
Listening to him,
you realize how convinced he is
that even God wants to erase us for good.
The same God we believe in now
was against us, like the painting shows.
It's hard to make these people understand.
It's sad because the Argentine State
was created that way.
Establishing that we are bad.
Members from other communities
don't believe in God.
- They don't...
- Exactly.
Meaning, they have other beliefs.
Jos was baptized there.
- How far did you go in school?
- Second grade.
- Second grade?
- Javier finished third grade.
There were no more grades.
It would take us an hour,
an hour and a half on foot.
We would walk there.
"What can you draw
that starts with letter 'I'?"
"An Indian."
"So, draw a person. An Indian."
Some of us would draw it
standing with the bow and arrow.
Others with the Argentine bola.
The more skilled ones
would draw him riding a horse.
Back then,
my mom, my older brothers and grown-ups
would handle the lawsuits.
People would try to evict us,
while at school we were being taught
about who discovered America.
About the Santa Mara,
La Nia and La Pinta.
The heroes of the Nation.
They never taught us
that we were actually Indigenous.
They never taught us about our rights.
We were taught what the books said.
That this country
had been inhabited by Indigenous peoples.
Very little was said about the fact
that Indigenous peoples still inhabit it.
That we are still here.
The river has been swollen for three days.
The kids are sheltering
at the orco school.
They couldn't cross the river.
We come from a people
that has been erased for years.
Our history has been distorted,
turned upside-down.
They have even stripped us
of our language,
but we do exist.
That teacher has made sacrifices
to be able to graduate and work.
Sadly, he needs to teach this
because that's what the job mandates.
It's likely that we don't teach
a lot about Indigenous peoples
because the priority is world history.
We must teach the curriculum
provided by the State.
So what they tell us to prioritize,
that's what we have to teach.
We see nowadays
that kids do finish high-school.
But then you see a marked depopulation.
And I see an inconsistency,
like a contradiction, right?
The struggle for the land
and at the same time, the depopulation.
Why would you fight for a land
that you are not going to use?
We Indigenous peoples do exist
and we have the right to live on our land.
And that's how the community began.
First, by obtaining the legal entity.
Holding the actual documents,
and not giving up.
Not leaving our land.
Having discussions.
Listening to the someone's opinion.
And then someone else's.
Knowing where we all stand.
Because history starts here.
They say: "We own this land."
But, as I say,
the paper doesn't question the pen.
To me, they took advantage
of other people's labor.
That's what Cafrune says in his song.
Work is a good thing
It's life's best
But life is lost at work
In someone else's ranch
Some work like thunder
While others enjoy the rain
The rancher boasts
Of gaucho ways and arrogance
He believes it's extravagance
For his ranch hand to live a cut above
But the gentleman doesn't know
That his ranch hand is the reason
His ranch endures its season
That's the way of the land.
It belongs to those who work it.
They might say:
"They are lazy, they don't work."
I think that those who live with us,
they know how we live,
what we do and why we do it.
And those who don't live here,
they don't know.
They don't know.
Come here, little one.
These are my sisters, Luisa and Antonia.
The older one got married
and moved to Buenos Aires.
She left in 1954.
Her husband worked at a foundry.
He was a metalworker.
She worked in a sewing workshop.
They used to send clothes to Tucumn.
Stores like Casa Heredia or Gath & Chaves...
They don't exist anymore.
They were good clothes.
My sister Luisa was a Peronist.
Antonia too.
She complained,
saying she hadn't had a breaded cutlet
since Pern's times.
"The last breaded cutlet I had
was with Pern," she said.
I was 12 or 13 when I left,
I don't remember.
That's when they sent me to Buenos Aires.
Since my sister was pregnant,
I had to take care of the other baby.
I had to wash his diapers,
his baby clothes, and bathe him.
But I didn't hang out or play with him.
I didn't like that.
Then, I looked for another job
cleaning houses.
The neighborhood was Villa Urquiza,
in the city of Buenos Aires.
I had to work in different houses
for three, four, two hours and so on.
I was always running
to catch the bus or the train.
But it paid well.
They are Clarisa and Fermina.
They were from Chasquivil.
Right after school,
they moved to the city to work.
They didn't play,
but took a photo pretending to.
Guillermina Olivar.
What a dress, right?
She was also raised with us in the house.
She became a domestic worker,
I don't know what became of her.
That's me.
I might be 17 or 18, I'm not sure.
I was a housekeeper.
Those of us who lived in
had Thursday afternoons off
to do some shopping or go out.
And back to work in the evening.
Work in the mountain
is very different from the city.
I felt embarrassed
because I didn't know how to clean well.
There was no flooring in rural homes.
There is now!
But not back then.
The boss one day came to me and said:
"Hi, Mara, here's your payment,
but you can't work here anymore."
I asked her why.
The front door was white.
And I didn't know
it needed cleaning every day.
"Tell me how to do it,
and I will do as you say,
if you want me to continue."
And I kept working.
From then on, I did as she said.
Francisco, my brother.
He also went to Buenos Aires to work.
In Sudamtex, a textile factory.
He worked there for like 15 years.
Now he lives in Chuscha with his family.
That's you, Dad.
Is that me?
Of course!
Yes.
That's me.
That's also me.
It wasn't hard to find a job.
Many used to leave.
Many young people.
Not only from Tucumn,
but also from other provinces.
This man in the white shirt
used to live up in the mountains.
He was a police officer in Buenos Aires.
He died a long time ago.
That's a friend of mine from Corrientes.
We became friends.
We celebrated together,
we visited each other.
We were homesick.
- That's Aunt Mara.
- Auntie.
Because we learned
that it's harder on our own.
She looks so pretty.
We need each other
to start building national unity...
I don't like Buenos Aires.
I don't like the weather.
That's my sister Delfina.
Nancy's mother.
My brother gave her that fabric.
I guess they must have sold him
the remnants from the factory.
It was pink.
She died.
So I raised my son and Nancy together.
I bartered knitted garments
for the tuition fees.
Young girls aren't like that now.
They aren't interested in crafts.
Can you weave?
- No.
- What about knitting?
- What about you?
- I can't.
- You both work as maids, right?
- Yes.
But I've always been treated well.
- I've never had any problems.
- Right.
Yeah.
Now I work in Chuscha.
And I come home on the weekends.
- Have you finished high school?
- I have.
Grandma.
That's life.
You learn to move around in the city,
working there.
Judges' houses, lawyers',
teachers', doctors' houses.
When I turned 18,
I wanted to leave that behind
and work on my own.
I'd go to the cemetery at 5 a.m.
to sell flowers.
On Father's Day and Mother's Day,
I'd sell a lot of carnations.
Then, I worked selling ice cream.
- Where's your house?
- Over there.
- Huh?
- It is over there.
Here's the turn, look.
- Oh, you're right.
- That way.
All the way, I used to go all the way.
And from there, down.
The path to go see you.
All that.
I hope that our children and those to come
don't have to go through what we faced.
And that would be...
And we're all together.
I'm tired.
Let's rest up a bit. It's hot.
- Where should we build our house?
- Over there I think.
Close to that one but farther up.
See how the grass is growing? Look.
- Where?
- Over there, that's it.
- I see. It's dry.
- Yes.
You have to dig that little edge.
But I was thinking
of a small excavation first.
And from there, then... fill all that in.
Then we can build.
We should take the way up
like the school kids, look.
From there, the plateau,
you can see everything,
when they go to school
and when they leave.
We can build two rooms...
Was there phone reception?
How far did it go?
- How far did it go?
- Up to the churqui tree.
- Up to the churqui.
- All the way there?
- Here too.
- Here too?
- The whole area.
- But is it good?
Yes, 4G.
- Really?
- But it doesn't work very well.
You're out of credit.
- No credit?
- I topped it up yesterday.
Remember the goats you saw over there?
- Whose were they?
- Ovando's, they left.
- I think there's two still here.
- Over there, look.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Is it recording?
- Yes?
- Take the floor, counsel.
Thank you very much.
I will try to get to the point,
it's been a long day
and we have gone over the events
multiple times.
At this trial we all know what happened
and we saw it play out in this Court.
We have had the chance
to see people pass through
trying to highlight
the rights of the Indigenous.
I greatly respect the rights
they might have,
but in this case, the subject of debate
is not their right to the lands.
In fact, it's not proven
that they own the land.
These people arrived peacefully,
and they found themselves
cornered, locked in and besieged,
by those who now call themselves
a community.
Who took away their weapons?
Was it only Superman Cata
who took them all?
During the reconstruction,
he clearly states
that he grabbed the weapon.
Delfn Cata could have easily
pulled the trigger
that caused the death of Mr. Chocobar.
To paraphrase historian
Carlos Pez de la Torre Jr.,
in an article from the newspaper La Gaceta
this historian expresses that in 1807
it was officially declared
that the Chuschagasta Community
was extinct.
Did I write that?
It's the first time that I hear
that this article
has had an impact
other than somebody reading it.
How remarkable!
I wrote it just to add some flair,
to depict an auction back in those days.
But I don't remember
the moment I wrote it.
I write every day, imagine that.
If I had to research every day
to write this stuff, I would die.
The lands were vacant,
completely uninhabited.
And...
we are talking about the Chuschas,
as they were called Chuschas,
not Chuschagasta.
It was a place where nothing existed.
This is confirmed
by the Registry of the Title III
in the Historical Provincial Archives.
It's certified and included in the book
written by Perilli de Colombres,
whom this defense tried
to get to come here to explain.
There's not much to explain about
where the name Chuschagasta comes from.
It comes from "chuschas,"
we say "chuschar"
when we want to pull someone's hair.
And for the Indigenous peoples,
their hair was a symbol of...
pride.
So they were called the Chuschagasta,
which means "the people with the hair."
We try to follow
the evolution of the lands
from the first owners.
We are talking about when the...
First there were Indigenous towns,
but later there were the Spanish owners
and their descendants.
And we try to trace it to the present day
because many families
still own those lands.
The Trancas area was populated
by many Indigenous groups.
According to the Spanish colonial law,
all Indigenous peoples were to have land.
Jacinto Chocobar is the flag bearer!
The banner is carried by Daniel Mamani!
Perico Balderrama!
Julin Balderrama!
Trancas and Burruyacu
were the defense zones
against the Indigenous peoples.
They would raid the estates,
take the livestock,
steal women, children.
They were ferocious.
The gauchos of our motherland!
Of our Argentina!
The Indigenous peoples
took part in the Independence struggles,
but they were somehow silenced.
Their voice doesn't appear again.
In 1808, a man, Nicols Molina,
came forward demanding
that the lands be sold to him.
He claimed that there were no more
Chuschagasta Indigenous peoples.
That the lands were in the hands
of tramps and bandits.
So he ordered to call the Chuschagasta
to see if there were any left.
But none came forward.
According to this file,
no representative did.
We are a republic.
And since the moment we became a republic
the territories were delimited and marked.
We have a Land Registry,
so we must respect the institutions
and respect the records created.
When the period of independence began,
the Indigenous towns
became somewhat displaced
because individual property
started being consolidated.
You see deed papers and...
well, you think they legitimize the owner.
The Indigenous peoples didn't have them.
In that sense, the communities
were not protected by the documents.
That's what piques my interest.
The existence of the documents.
All those studies
on the Indigenous peoples
seem like fantasy to me.
And on the Indigenous language.
"Turns out this word is Kakn,
there's a Kakn lexicon..."
That depresses me greatly.
For a long time, nobody talked
about Indigenous communities.
And suddenly, they surfaced.
Now they are all demanding land,
quite violently, in some cases.
There are now some problems
with the Chuschagasta,
the chief who was killed...
How could they prove
their Indigenous community identity?
They no longer speak the language,
they don't have distinctive traits.
But we have to think
that even Indigenous peoples
couldn't keep their name.
Let that sink in.
One must write the truth.
So to speak.
What is the truth?
In the film The Devil's Disciple,
with Laurence Olivier,
at the end, they say:
"What will history say, General?"
So Laurence Olivier turns and says:
"History will lie, as it always has."
Cirilo, my father, told me
there was a peach tree there.
My grandfather was born there.
They were farmhands
who worked gathering the livestock,
either for sale, for branding,
to milk, to make cheese.
There, the gang of laborers,
as they were labeled,
did all the work.
They were Indigenous,
but their name was changed.
They called them "gang of laborers."
Then they called them "gauchos."
Everyone who wants a piece of the land
says that the Indigenous peoples
have all disappeared.
That they have all gone,
the Chuschagastas too.
They represented an obstacle
to them seizing the land, as always.
Your Honor,
can you hear me?
It's been 350 years
since the Chuschas have been here.
After the Calchaqu Wars,
they were forced by the king
to come to this valley
just like the Tolombn and the Colalao.
They were registered as "Chuchingasta,"
"Chachagasta,"
"Chuchagasti,"
"Chugasta,"
"Chuscas,"
"Chujcha."
Or sometimes just "Indians."
They raised oxen to replace cart animals
and livestock to feed caravaners.
Where Route 9 now runs,
the Royal Road once passed.
Along that road, carts traveled
to the silver mines of Potos.
It has been said that the Chuschas
became extinct in 1807,
but in 1807 the Chuschas
were paying rent to a certain Alurralde.
They were charged
without the king's permission.
The Cabildo removed
the Alurralde family from there.
Their descendants,
whose last name was Colombres,
had been collecting documents:
testaments, land surveys,
land sales within families.
They made a clever move.
They claimed that an Alurralde
had bequeathed the estate to them.
They called it La Higuera Estate.
And they kept charging the Chuschas.
Records show cooks, laundresses,
farmhands worked there
under the surnames Balderrama, Mamani,
Cata, Vargas, Pistn, Chocobar.
No longer registered as "Chuschas."
The Colombres family
sold part of that land.
That's what the Amn family got in 1959.
The Chuschas wrote
to the Government of Tucumn
to have their land situation reviewed.
This alerted the Colombres.
They needed a document.
What did the Colombres show
as evidence in court?
The rent receipts they collected
from the Chuschas, Your Honor.
Behold,
the history of property in this valley.
Governor Juri expropriated the Colombres.
It seems like good news
for the Chuscha families.
But you'll see.
Colombres received a hefty payout
for the expropriation.
Amn and a neighbor, Critto,
move forward on the expropriated land.
A certain Araujo, public servant Chiarello
and her brother Dante
claimed they own the lands
of community member Salvador Cata.
Which national institution
cares about the legitimacy of property?
Some things are simply shameful,
Your Honor.
The accused and their main witnesses,
and all the alleged owners
of this territory
hold or have held positions
in the Government of Tucumn.
Except for the Chuschas.
The Chuschas have spent years
doing paperwork,
writing letters, waiting in hallways,
in front desks,
respecting the country's institutions
like no other.
The Republic has shown greater respect
for the colonial records
than for Argentine citizens.
Do you believe in God, Your Honor?
Is God seeing all of this?
Don't be afraid.
Don't be upset,
nothing bad will happen to you.
Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid.
Nothing bad will happen to you.
You are with your mommy.
The movie depicted Christian characters,
and they suffered
under the rule of the Roman Empire.
- Ben-Hur?
- Ben-Hur, yes.
If we bring that to the present day,
the members of our communities
have endured a similar fate.
The life of a mule
was worth more than a human's
because they had to pay for the mule.
The movie showed
the true colors of the empire.
Many empires have fallen,
and other empires are rising.
That is the core meaning of the movie.
It awoke this feeling in me
in relation to us.
I own all those colors.
Don't be afraid.
I love them all. All of them.
Don't be afraid.
You are with mommy.
Present!
- Javier Chocobar!
- Is present!
EMERGENCY EXIBy unanimous vote, the Court rules
to condemn Daro Luis Amn
for considering him the principal author
of the crime of aggravated homicide
by the use of a firearm,
sentencing him to serve
22 years in prison.
To sentence Luis Humberto Gmez,
secondary participant, to serve 18 years.
To sentence Eduardo Jos del Milagro
Valdivieso Sassi
to serve ten years in prison.
INFANTRY
Never give up on the people's fight!
Javier Chocobar!
- Justice for Javier Chocobar!
- Justice!
- Javier Chocobar!
- Present!
- Now!
- And forever!
Cinema? I think I have never been to one.
I've listened to the radio,
but only since 1963 or 1964.
And I only just started
watching TV recently.
A few years ago.
Surely our generations
will keep fighting with the hope
that many people are working
for the good of humanity.
This world would be so beautiful
if all of us could see
the wonder that we are as human beings.
When we sing, when we smile,
when we make music,
when we look into the eyes
of each wonderful person.
But it's so sad when someone
ravages, kills, destroys.
I believe that if they found
another planet in the universe
they would also tear it apart.
The convicts appealed the verdict.
Two years later, in 2020,
they were released.
Daro Amn passed away in 2021
due to COVID-19.
In 2025, the sentence was upheld.
Luis Humberto Gmez and Eduardo Valdivieso
returned to prison.
The Chuschagasta Indigenous Community
continues to demand
the restitution of their territory
from the Argentine State
and keeps the memory
of Javier Chocobar alive.
Dedicated to the Chuschagasta
Indigenous Community
and their current appointed leader,
Azucena Cata,
without whom this film
would not have been possible.
Come on!
Good pass.
Come on!
- Come on.
- Now.
- Go, go, go.
- Coming in!
Come on.
Oh, girl.
Good pass.
Almost, Anglica.
POLICE
We are gathered in this trial
that the Province of Tucumn carries
against Luis Humberto Gmez,
Eduardo Jos del Milagro Valdivieso Sassi,
and Daro Luis Amn,
for aggravated attempted homicide
in real concurrence
and illegal possession of firearms.
Mr. Luis Humberto Gmez,
please come forward.
They are bringing you a chair.
- Do you have any children?
- I do, three.
How old are they?
They are of legal age.
Any addictions?
None.
- Do you drink?
- No cigarettes, no alcohol, no drugs.
- Any other pending cases?
- None.
- Any convictions?
- None.
- No pending cases?
- None.
Very well.
Daro Luis Amn.
How old are you, sir?
I'm forty-five.
What do you do?
I work for the Honorable Legislature.
Where?
Historical Heritage.
Eduardo Jos del Milagro Valdivieso Sassi.
What do you do?
I am a retired police officer
and a farmer.
- Any pending criminal cases?
- No pending cases.
Any previous convictions?
None.
It might be appropriate
that I now clarify
what the long-standing relationship is
that I have
with the two co-defendants in the case.
Valdivieso and I worked together
in the police force.
Well, many here have a friend
who always tags along.
For me, that's him.
Wherever I went, he would come.
So, I invited him.
I met Daro Amn about 20 years ago.
We then developed a relationship
that went beyond the personal.
It consisted in contributing
a certain amount of capital,
to carry out a mining venture
that we were developing.
That day we had a camera
because we had to take pictures
of what we needed to do...
to start a mining path,
and what materials we...
To see whether we needed a bulldozer
or any other thing
to start the path again
since many years had passed.
They started taking pictures.
I asked who these people were.
I was told they were locals.
They took photos of us.
I asked why they were photographing
the license plate and whatnot.
And they said
that they were Indigenous, allegedly,
and wanted to take over
a property
that supposedly belonged to Amn.
I backed away, avoided the conflict,
went down with Daro,
and that's when they surrounded us,
attack us, I was clearly attacked.
I felt like death was there.
They were never aware of the fact
that I have a mother and two kids.
They publicly called me "the murderer."
And they labeled me as "the murderer."
They labeled me as "the murderer."
And I was not on trial yet.
And I'm not a murderer either!
I was home.
I am no criminal. I am a family man.
I'm a farmer,
my kids attend a religious school.
It's not as the prosecutor said.
I'm not a crook,
nor a paramilitary task force member.
I have nothing to do with that.
I have honorable friends,
I cannot be accused like this.
The prosecutor inquires why we were armed.
I would ask instead:
"Who prohibits that I carry a gun?"
Us police officers
do not lose our status as officers.
I am proud to be a retired police officer.
Thank God I had a gun,
or I wouldn't be here to explain.
It's recording now.
Hold it for me.
Who's in charge here?
No one is in charge here.
- No one?
- No one.
Fine, then. See you later. Take care.
Put the...
You need to drive down the hill.
- No.
- What?
- I mean, you have to...
- No.
- Are you driving up?
- Yeah.
Be careful with...
the ravine.
Are you recording?
- Their faces, I mean.
- Yeah, man.
- Point it at them, keep your cool.
- I see them.
Kick the four-wheel drive in.
- They're taking pictures.
- Yeah, let them.
What for? No one at the court
listens to them anymore.
POLICE
Today, here in this place,
where chief Javier Chocobar
was murdered nine years ago
there will be an official re-enactment
conducted by the jury.
The Forensic Investigation from the Prosecutor's Office
is handling all the technical aspects
besides security that is handled
by members of the police force...
We were coming through here
in our Land Rover, at 6 p.m.
Daro Amn was driving, I was to his right
and Valdivieso was in the back.
Here, we made the first visual contact
with these people, who were over there.
I waved from my seat,
they didn't respond, so we kept going.
When we got here, by that post
was a gate and a sign that said:
"No Trespassing. Chuschagasta Community."
Something like that.
I saw in the rearview mirror
people were approaching from behind.
So when we all realize, I tell them both:
"Don't step out of the car
because they might think
that if it's three of us,
we are looking for some kind of trouble."
So, I got out all by myself
and went to meet them.
I say: "Good afternoon.
Who is in charge here?"
Making these gestures.
"Who is in charge here?"
So they... Go on please, walk past me
as closely as you can.
That's it.
So they replied: "No one is in charge,
this belongs to the community."
What did I do in response?
"Very well, then. Good afternoon!"
And doing nothing else,
we turned around and drove away.
And that's the end of that scene.
Valdivieso said: "I will take a nap."
Our intention was to make it
to the mining path.
I suggest you stand there,
I'll point that way and behind my back.
Okay.
When we saw that people were coming down,
I told Daro to start recording
and let me do the talking.
And they gestured like this.
You stand there.
You can clearly see it in the video.
So, they forced me to turn around.
You three, walk over there
gesticulating like this.
- This way?
- Same as in the video.
- Like this?
- Yes, exactly.
I told them: "I don't want any trouble."
"I will report you all
to the authorities."
He then came up to me, saying:
"What are you gonna do?"
- Do it, please.
- Hands outward.
- Good.
- That's it.
So I was now seeing
that he was holding a rock,
and I was not sure about the other.
But I couldn't let anybody
grab me like this.
So, when he did that, I acted on instinct.
- I did that.
- Here, take it. The gun.
I won't do it again.
What I did was part of my training.
It's natural.
The Argentine State trained me to do that.
The Argentine State.
I drew my weapon and kept it down.
Or they would have killed me.
That's what I thought.
I kept talking to them.
I kept talking.
Do you believe in God?
Do you have any religious beliefs
or any other belief
on which you could swear?
Do you swear to tell the truth,
on your honor?
Were you able to attend school?
PUBLIC PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
Mr. Cata.
What was your relationship
with Mr. Chocobar?
He's my maternal half-brother.
Where do you live?
In El Chorro, within the territory
of the Chuschagasta Indigenous Community.
The quarry
is at the center of the territory.
Who are you and why do you come here?
We are the Amn family, don't you know?
We are the Amn family.
You have no business here.
So you say, tell me who you are.
- We are a community.
- An Indigenous community.
And we are asserting our rights, so...
OK. Relax, calm down.
If we talk, we might understand
each other. Or maybe not.
So I say, let's talk,
and we might understand each other.
If we don't talk, we might not.
You know there is a court order.
I don't mean to hurt you,
but if I report what you're doing,
we will all get in trouble.
- It's OK.
- What are we doing?
What is it that we are doing?
- What is it?
- Man.
Stay cool, brother.
Don't you threaten me. I'm being polite.
Who do you think you are?
What's going on?
I will fuck you up!
No!
Stop it, man. Stop!
Stop it, man!
That's Javier, see?
That's my brother.
And this is Javier's brother.
That was in the city,
when they were harvesting.
Cutting sugar cane.
What you see there is a pen.
This one is from when Javier was drafted.
He served for three months.
On account of his good behavior.
That was the fashion back then.
The jacket and...
the sunglasses.
That's a small badge, like a button.
The Argentine badge
like the ones that the kids
wear on their school uniforms.
He would carry the pen around,
I don't know why.
They used to wear jackets, suits.
They went on horseback.
They went dancing.
Chacarera, zamba, gato,
escondido, bailecito.
Those dances were frequent here.
There are still. Chamam, pasodoble.
That girl who is dancing
was a member of his family.
He was single. We were not dating yet.
He ironed his handkerchief himself.
With the corners out. Really tidy.
They used to dress up a lot back then.
All these were taken with his camera.
He took pictures of everything.
It was a white camera,
I don't remember well.
He already had it when we got married.
There is a tree over there.
He would send a message calling me.
My dad didn't know,
he worked harvesting sugar cane, too.
He would go cut cane with my mom.
My brother and I stayed home.
He would send me letters
through his sister,
saying he wanted to see me
and I would go right away.
No talking, he'd just stare at me
for a little while,
and then we would leave,
we wouldn't talk much.
That's the day after I got married.
I was 21.
I wore a little suit.
I don't know the name of that fabric,
it was light blue.
It wasn't thin, it was rather thick.
And what is this one?
That's what he looked like when we met.
Your dad and me.
Javier got up every morning
to go cut cane,
until 8 a.m., then he'd come back,
have breakfast and go back until 12 p.m.
And around 9 p.m., he'd already be in bed.
And he would get up again at 2 a.m.
He would go
when the moon was shining bright.
But if there was no moon, he wouldn't go.
He'd just go the following day.
That's Gabriel when he was a baby.
He was angry.
So I laid him down
and Javier took the photo.
He took photos of all the kids.
Women were not so much into photographs.
Men were.
"You've kept the best one
for yourself," he used to say.
He was a jokester.
He made saddles, you know?
Headstalls, reins, all that.
They sold well.
The festival of...
What was it called?
Festival, Festival of...
Tradition!
We are...
The Hope of Chamam!
We come from up there
where the air is pure.
For all of you, we bring the rhythm of...
chamam!
And it goes like this!
Let's hear that sapucai, gauchos!
You are Delfn Cata, is that right sir?
That's me.
You were taking photos.
What is that camera?
That camera
belonged to a community member.
A camera that uses film.
See you later. Take care.
They're taking pictures.
You are recording, right?
- Their faces, I mean.
- Yes, man.
- Point it at them, keep your cool.
- I see them.
Daro Amn was recording that day.
He had the video camera and a revolver.
That's Uncle Javier.
That's Andrs.
Emilio, that's me,
and the one coming down here is Beto.
Beto Cata.
That's Nico, Adriana's son.
That's Lucrecia, Delfn Cata's daughter.
That's Francisca.
And that's Uncle Javier standing there.
Why take photos? No one at the court
listens to them anymore.
If we talk, we might understand
each other. Or maybe not.
So I say, let's talk,
and we might understand each other.
Or we might not.
You know there is a court order...
Uncle Javier is coming from the back.
He's coming down over there.
Who do you think you are?
We were wrestling with Gmez
and I went like...
Excuse me.
Like this.
So I picked up the gun
and flung it over there.
Where was Javier?
Javier was lying over there.
And that's when he said:
"Turk, you motherfucker. You shot me."
This memorial wasn't here.
Then I heard another shot.
Gmez didn't have the gun anymore.
And then, Gmez tried to escape
and he fell here.
A little farther ahead.
There.
That's when Gmez reached for his ankle.
So, I pulled on his leg like this
and I took his other gun.
Gmez was disarmed.
I flung it far.
Over there.
Please state your full name, please.
Alberto Orlando Cata.
How old are you?
Twenty-two.
What do you do?
I'm an athlete.
- I can't hear you.
- I'm an athlete.
- An athlete?
- Yes.
- Were you able to attend school?
- Yes.
- How far did you get?
- High school.
- Did you graduate?
- Yes.
I was standing here,
and my uncle came this way.
So I saw Amn shooting from over there.
Around here.
- Amn was there.
- Right.
- Go on. Lead the way.
- Uh-huh.
He came from the back.
I turned around
and I saw Valdivieso coming.
I am aware that the weapons
have been seized...
Could you please
show them to the plaintiff?
We have never seen them.
- Of course.
- If we may.
Are they unloaded, Mr. Secretary?
- Hold them downwards, please.
- Very well.
A Taurus .40 pistol,
a Beretta, 9mm caliber
and a .32 revolver.
I drop the gun and all I manage to do
is run over here.
I go look for Valdivieso.
And then I pass out.
I can't remember anything else.
Four people, please.
Stand here.
Someone, stand here.
Someone behind me, please.
From the sides, they kicked my gut.
The guy behind me
hit my head with a stick.
I got up and warned them
they would kill me.
I fire and shout: "Stop! Police!"
"You're gonna kill him! Enough!"
"I'm a police officer.
What are you doing?"
I turn around.
A fat one starts strangling me.
I thought I'd get shot
from the way they were punching me.
So I stay down, and when I get up,
there was silence,
and blood is coming over my eyes.
It's true that they received blows,
but no gunshots.
We could have done the same as them,
with the same weapons.
But we didn't...
Javier received a fatal shot
and lost his life.
Emilio got shot in the shin,
which broke his leg.
And Andrs was shot in the abdomen.
Right when the trial began,
he started feeling unwell
and they found a tumor in his head.
He wants to speak,
some words come out right,
but he cannot express what he feels,
what he wants to say.
Meanwhile, we kept waiting for the trial
against these crooks.
Nine years.
Yes, nine years
until the trial finally took place.
CHUSCHAGASTA COMMUNITY
Javier Chocobar!
Now and forever!
WE DEMAND PROSECUTOR DEMITRI'S RESIGNATION
See? He has a pen there too.
In his shirt pocket.
It was Manolo's birthday.
They popped the piata.
This is Chanito, he was so little!
Chanito.
What was this old man's name?
He was always around.
When they branded cattle,
he would play music.
He was friends with Javier.
Mariela, Gabriel's wife, baked the cake.
She bakes.
The whole family is in that photo,
everyone wanted to be in the picture.
Javier is playing the old man's accordion.
I was here when they came.
Javier told me he'd walk down
to the plot with the rest and come back.
And that's when I heard a gunshot.
I fell down, got up, fell down and got up...
They said
I was rolling around and screaming.
I don't remember anything.
"Mama, let's go home,
Dad's already dead," they said.
I kept repeating: "No, he is not dead."
They couldn't take me away.
I was there, holding onto him.
This news story begins
with a brutal armed confrontation
between two gangs
in the town of Chuscha,
in the Trancas department.
As a consequence, a man died
and three people were injured.
In the afternoon...
Why were you there?
We were looking after our land.
To prevent strangers from taking it.
Since when have you been
looking after the land?
We used to live there.
Our ancestors, my grandfather,
my great-grandfather.
How old are you, sir?
Forty-six.
Have you been looking after the land
for 46 years?
Even before that.
- Counsel, the prosecutor is right.
- Long before that.
- It is not relevant.
- No, it's not.
He said he had always lived there,
his grandparents, too.
I want to know how long
they have been protecting the land.
Then ask him that specifically.
Since when have you been gathering around
in that area or at the gate
to protect the land?
"We did not have weapons,
we acted peacefully from the beginning
to prevent them from taking control."
"But problems arose
and they began to shoot."
"We had to defend ourselves
with sticks and stones."
Truth is...
yes, with stones, because the truth is we...
we didn't have any weapons.
Do you know me, sir?
No.
I want you to look at me.
Do you know the defendants?
Whom you mentioned as Amn,
the one wearing the white cap,
and the gray-haired one.
I know him.
- Who is he?
- Daro Amn.
And in that sector to your right,
do you know anybody?
- The question from the defense...
- That's up to our defense.
I won't discuss my strategy with you.
- But the question...
- It won't cause any harm.
So as not to be repetitive,
do you have good eyesight?
- Excuse me?
- If you have good eyesight.
- Do you wear glasses?
- No, I don't. I have good eyesight.
When you saw Mr. Amn,
was he standing, sitting, kneeling?
He was standing.
And, when my uncle came by,
he pointed the weapon at him
and fired, I saw him...
Who determined Mr. Chocobar was dead?
You said you saw
Mr. Valdivieso firing his gun.
I did.
- When was that?
- It was...
When in your story?
I'd say, when people were...
Closer to the microphone.
People were retreating, and he aimed
towards the people who were climbing,
to reach another path farther up.
- He aimed towards people.
- Yes.
Do you remember the statement
you gave to the police after the event?
Excuse me, I consider
the defense attorney's remarks
are witness harassment.
This is an oral debate!
And this is what oral proceedings are for.
So that the witnesses
can explain in detail,
not to repeat verbatim
what they told a computer...
I request the floor.
I do not intend
to intimidate the witness, Your Honor.
His previous statement was different.
He was 13 years old, he was a minor.
Based on what he says now,
I hereby request a confrontation.
You get me?
And there was no weapon in my hand
because you stole it
from me and took it away.
You hear me? The weapon is a pistol.
- What's it like?
- The weapon was...
- You say you know it so well.
- ...a small weapon...
You're wrong, my weapon is big!
You're dead wrong, it's big!
It's a big pistol!
- Be respectful, Mr. Valdivieso.
- Don't raise your voice.
- All right.
- I haven't given you the floor.
- I apologize, Your Honor.
- Be respectful.
The weapon...
It wasn't big, it was...
If you know the weapon...
I would like the Court to show the weapons
and see if he recognizes...
No, address him, not the Court.
And when you were leaving...
- No interruptions.
- ...you came back, so I found it.
My weapon?
- Well...
- My weapon?
Was it my weapon?
Why didn't you pick up another weapon?
- Because...
- Why?
- Why would I?
- So, why take my weapon?
- Excuse me?
- Why take my other weapon, then?
So you don't mess up again like--
You're saying I picked up a weapon
and that I messed up...
You say I presumably picked up a weapon.
What weapon did I pick up?
Do you think that,
had I found another gun,
I'd leave without my gun,
which you stole from me?
Why were you there?
I asked him why he was there.
It won't do any harm, answer.
Why were you in that place?
Do you believe in God?
Do you swear to tell the truth,
so help you God?
You said that you got together
in order to protect the land.
Why did you think that someone
would take over your land?
How many families live there?
Did you ever think
of defending yourselves?
Stick to the facts, counsel.
Did you know
that the land belonged to Amn?
I'll be straightforward.
Why were you there that day
instead of being home
drinking mate tea or sowing the land?
An athlete
from the town of Trancas, La Higuera!
Coming in, athlete number 20
from La Higuera!
Representing Trancas!
Come on.
Here.
I really liked
doing that, taking pictures.
Fly away, little one.
When I served in the military,
I had several photos taken.
I wanted to keep a record,
so it wouldn't fade away.
I had one of those cardboard cameras.
Nowadays, the phone helps.
But in the community,
not all of us have good phones.
I took these photos to keep a record
of the times of trouble
that the community was going through.
Like when Daro Amn built that shack.
Chief Balderrama is showing the injunction
asking them to leave the community
as they were not allowed there.
People were tired of lawsuits.
We had to defend ourselves somehow,
how did we do it?
By filing reports.
Whether they did something about it
or not,
without a report, there's no evidence.
Realizing that you are...
erm...
a descendant of our ancestors
hasn't been easy for me.
But I finally did realize.
We don't come from far away.
We're not from Germany,
we don't come from the U.S.,
we don't come from Italy.
Here, our grandparents,
great-grandparents, parents...
and us, we were all born here,
and our children are being born here.
These are the steps to follow
to build a case file.
You need to analyze the problem
and see where to elevate it.
Whether it's the local Congress,
or the Prosecutor's Office
or some other institution,
like the Land Registry Office.
Meaning, wherever the complaint
needs to be addressed.
And always better if it's signed
by the entire community,
but it doesn't end there.
'Cause if you don't follow up,
they will shelve it,
new files come in and it gets buried
and then nobody can find it.
Day after day, endless commutes.
They'd tell us to go back
the following week, month, 15 days...
I... constantly followed up
on that that file, periodically,
in order to make progress.
Sometimes, also,
you have to send them something
like a chicken, a gift,
for those at the front desk
because they are the ones
who really control the case files.
Right.
Sometimes they understand
because they are workers
and people like us.
Right.
There's another important thing.
When the counterparty
asks to talk,
that's not good for the community.
Yes, communication is important,
but it's not convenient for us
because if we agree to talk,
we know we'll end up losing,
because we'll have to concede something.
Dialogue means giving up something.
Which means giving up a part of the land.
Let's give a warm welcome to our pilgrims,
to the gaucho troop
from Chuscha and La Higuera.
They brought their figurines.
It's a day for family, a day for faith.
My dad was from Chasquivil.
My mom was from Rodeo Grande.
I don't know what the processions
were like back then,
the Lord of Health, all that...
My mom and dad met there
and they got married.
Happy Day of the Virgin to everyone.
This procession was in Anca Juli.
I'm not sure what part exactly,
or what saint they were carrying.
That's my dad
playing the drum and probably singing.
They must be singing coplas.
His grandparents were from Amaicha.
My grandfather used to say
he was the son of Indigenous peoples.
But my grandmother, Pistn,
she said she was mixed blood.
We are not pure, I guess.
This one is the oldest.
That's the first house
they had in Anca Juli.
It was more like a small shed,
made of cane and sticks.
My mom is holding my hand.
Women came and asked her
to make them a dress, a skirt, a blouse.
"That's how I learned to sew,"
my mom used to say.
She would wash the fabric and then measure
the shoulders, the inseam.
All of that.
My mom used to assist in births.
In emergencies,
I stepped in, I helped with three.
But I only helped them come out.
I cut the umbilical cord,
helped with the placenta,
no more than that.
This is Silvia.
She wasn't their biological child.
Her mother left her at home as a baby
so the judge told my parents
to register her as their own.
That's me.
"Chuscha" means thick hair.
It's a word...
an Indigenous word, I was told.
My family always received visitors.
The hunters would come,
one would tell the other, and so on.
They spoke well of my parents.
They brought their photo cameras,
those small, square ones.
They'd give them to my mom as a gift.
And so, they made friends.
We are six.
The eldest was Antonia, Braulio,
Luisa, Francisco, Delfina and myself.
Mom and Dad taught us to be articulate.
Not to just stand there in silence.
They used to tell us
we had Indigenous heritage.
"The children of Indians."
Indigenous peoples were not liked.
It was embarrassing
because it was derogative
to call somebody "Indian."
There were problems.
My dad used to tell me that.
He went to trial, I remember.
They wanted him to pay to work the land.
He had to pay with labor.
Working for them,
but without compensation.
If he refused, they would threaten,
erm,
to take away a year-old animal
and give him two newborns instead.
So, the way I see it, it was like a scam
because he didn't know if those newborns
would grow up healthy,
whereas he'd give the boss
an animal that was already a year old.
My mom didn't like
having problems with anybody.
So she asked my dad to come
and find a place to move.
It made me very sad to leave
the place where I was born,
where I grew up,
where I had everything.
We packed everything up in boxes.
There were no roads, no paths whatsoever.
We carried all by mule.
It took us about three or four months.
The goats, the sheep,
the cows, the horses.
We had to carry it all. Even the chickens.
Meanwhile, we built the house here
cutting the adobe
and the straw to make the roof.
First a bedroom,
then, a kitchen resembling a small hut.
We did it together, as a family.
That's how it came together.
You know, you see these like this,
quite weathered,
but they are here.
I've kept them.
I don't know what will happen
when I die, what will happen to these.
What they'll do with them.
That's what happened.
There is a historian who clearly states
that they disappeared in 1807.
Let's be very clear about that.
Great.
I have a blind faith in justice
and also in the justice of God.
I believe that my son,
after seven years
of seeing a psychiatrist...
Both of them, actually,
my grandson as well...
It's very hard for a mother to see
your son hurting and in such bad shape...
The lands absolutely have...
a deed and a title.
They were bought at a judicial auction
from the National Bank.
They have perfect legal titles.
That's why I was able to register
as a mining entrepreneur.
In 2006, I offered them one acre each,
total ownership,
but not as an Indigenous community,
and they said no.
I offered work in the quarry,
they said they were on welfare.
They received a payment
of 200 pesos a month
and in the quarry we offered 600 per week.
But no one wanted to work.
How can anyone even imagine
that if I wished to kill someone,
I would shoot them in the leg?
It's way easier to lift the weapon
six inches and hit the abdomen.
Or nine more and hit the chest.
Twelve more and hit the head.
But of course: "Who is the author?"
"Luis Gmez." "Why?"
"Whatever, he's paramilitary
and he's this and that," and so on.
The truth will be revealed.
We had genuine interest in going
and I was not, in any way,
a hitman, as the lawyers say.
I have genuine interest.
Daro Amn and myself formed an LLC
before the event even took place.
So they can't say that we went
to evict them carrying weapons.
They were living there together with us.
Some were born and raised there,
they are still there!
Nobody was looking to evict them.
Here, we are all equal under the law.
So, the whole thing
about being Indigenous, not Indigenous...
The Vikings were Indigenous too
and today we travel to their country,
and it is the First World.
Thank you, Your Honor.
What did "Campo Amigo LLC" mean?
It was the combination
of the two surnames.
"Ami" for Amn, and "go" for Gmez.
The purpose was to exploit that quarry.
The video captures the entire event.
Not only do the images capture it,
but so does the audio recording.
What was Gmez's threat?
"I'll bring you to justice."
Not, "I'll take a gun and shoot you."
Gmez had been carrying a gun since 1979.
He is the founder of Grupo Cero
in Tucumn.
A task force which trained abroad.
Consequently, had Gmez intended to kill,
he would have done so.
What's going on?
I will fuck you up!
We are trained to develop
different brain hemispheres.
What does this mean?
I can talk, think, look,
and analyze at the same time.
Speech is controlled by one part,
thought by another part,
and my movements by another part.
If I don't learn to do two or three
things at the same time,
I won't have...
what I need to be in a special task force.
Out of 100 people who enroll
in a special forces course,
only three to five graduate,
eight at most.
In that sense, I ask you this:
couldn't Gmez have backed up,
walking backwards without losing sight
of the people coming his way?
Couldn't he have moved away...?
Walking backwards is impossible
on the surface I see.
We have a technique to move backwards
where we drag one leg.
If I may, I'll show you our technique
to avoid tripping while walking backwards.
Amn decides to turn to Gmez.
He sees that the legal methods
are going nowhere,
so, at some point, he resolves
to do this through other means.
He doesn't call
an engineer or a geologist.
No, he calls a retired police officer
who, at 31, had been formally accused
eight times of illegal coercion,
threats, robbery, fraud,
aggravated robbery on two occasions
and of very serious injuries.
Gmez brings Valdivieso along.
"The operation is today at 4 p.m.
"Don't tell Mom. I'm shaking all over,
but I trust Luis."
"I trust Luis, four more cops are coming."
"Don't say a word,
only you and I know."
This is a text message
that Amn sent to his brother.
Are you friends or enemies
with the parties in this trial?
I have been a friend of the mother
for 35 years.
Of Mr. Amn's mother?
And I've known the kids
since they were little.
Do you have any interest
in the outcome of the trial?
Only for justice to be served,
nothing personal.
Were the slabs located
within Amn's claimed property?
They were.
As a land surveyor,
along with my topographer,
we took measurements and determined
that the place was within the property.
- Did you see those papers?
- I did.
There were clear legal titles
for that property.
I can attest they are the owners.
Have you seen a house there?
I know people lived further up, yes.
When you say further up, how far exactly?
I can't say.
I can't say.
An estimate.
I have no idea.
I haven't analyzed that.
What do you do?
- I'm a public servant.
- Where?
In the Choromoro rural community.
Please state if you are certain
of who the owners of the property are.
The Amn family.
How do you know
that it belongs to the Amn family?
I'm 47, for as long as I can remember,
I've known the property belongs to them.
Right, but how?
Because of what people say...
People say they own it.
Is the last witness your brother?
- A relative?
- He is my brother.
- Your brother. What do you do?
- I'm a public servant.
Where?
The rural community of Anca Juli.
Let me ask you, if you live there...
You said you were born and raised there.
Is it a choice whether to belong
to the community or not?
I've never been...
I've never agreed
to be part of the community.
So simply living there
and being born there
doesn't make you a member.
- I'm not a member.
- You are not.
- I'm not.
- What about other people?
Do you understand the question?
For example, if a child of yours is born,
are they part or should they do something
to become a member?
- Of the Chuscha community where I live?
- Yes.
I'm part of the community
because I live there.
But I don't belong
to the Chuschagasta Community.
Do you need to enroll or...?
Do you need to engage in activities?
What do you need to do
to be part of the community?
Do you have to share
the work and the yield?
I don't understand.
You are from there.
I was never part
of the Chuschagasta Indigenous Community
as they call themselves.
Honestly, I don't know
if they are truly a community.
I was never a part of it.
Is it by birth or by choice?
Do you understand what I'm asking?
No, no, it's by...
It's by choice.
It's optional.
Mrs. Chiarello.
Silvia Chiarello.
What do you do?
I'm retired but I still work
at the Anca Juli rural community
- I keep collaborating...
- Retired from what?
The Ministry of Interior.
Do you know the parties in the trial?
Only Mr. Amn.
Do you have a friendship, an enmity,
or a vested interest
in the outcome of the case?
None. Absolutely none.
- Madam President?
- Yes?
- Regarding the witness...
- Yes.
The complaints filed against her
are still active.
Let me repeat the question:
- Are you a friend or enemy...?
- No.
- Do you have a stake in either party?
- None.
But I do have to say--
- Are you being sued by a party?
- Yes.
- That part is true.
- Let's see.
The Chuschagasta Community
is suing my brother and me
before the Federal Court.
- What is your brother's name?
- Dante Chiarello.
Are you in any territorial dispute
with the community?
- Maybe a border issue...
- No, none whatsoever.
We have always lived in peace and harmony.
Everybody knows what the limits are,
where the borders are.
They were always good, hardworking people,
just normal folks, equals.
We are all equal.
So, everyone did their thing,
focused on their own work.
But fundamentally, good people.
Yet the community filed the complaint
against you?
Saying that we weren't the rightful owners
and that we were usurping
was an euphemism.
They called us crooks,
abusers, oppressors.
And for me personally,
when I was the commissioner,
who voted for me to win?
Who voted for me to win?
And I've won many times
with the people's vote,
and my elections
were absolutely transparent,
just like my life, counsel.
Mrs. Chiarello was highly regarded
by Mr. Salvador.
He didn't know how to read,
he signed with his fingerprint.
For them, a person like that
was easy to deceive.
They befriend people, build rapport,
and then begin to inquire
about the state of the land, who owns it
and before you know it, it's too late.
If there is no further matter...
Indeed, counsel.
The defense was not informed at any time
that a movie was being filmed.
So, we are working in a kind of circus
for a movie to be made.
I think it would have been prudent
for all of us to have known
that a movie about the case
was being made,
so that this isn't regarded as a circus,
but treated with the seriousness
that this hearing deserves.
No one in this Court
or in this room gives this trial,
which has a unique importance
compared to other processes,
the treatment or tone of a circus.
Let me clarify that with all seriousness.
It's inappropriate to believe
that this Court behaves as such.
This courtroom is open,
as the law mandates,
during an oral and public trial.
It is not for us to decide
what press we like or not
in order to let them in.
In fact, I don't know
the names of the journalists,
nor what outlets they work for.
Never have I pondered life itself.
I only thought about
what I needed to get by.
Not about life itself.
Later on, I did.
As years went by,
I came to understand how I lived
and what life had been like for me.
I worked selling brooms.
And I also shined shoes.
If I made more than three pesos,
that was good money.
I gave it to my mother.
And if the weekend came
and I wanted to go to the movies,
or to the circus,
she would give me money for that.
My favorite was the one in Ben-Hur.
Charlton Heston.
When I was nine or ten, I lost my mother.
I was left like a ship without a rudder.
In her room,
I had dug up a hole and hidden a can.
When I returned every afternoon,
I would put the two or three pesos
I had left over in it.
I started saving.
Since the trains came into the station,
it was full of vendors.
I'd sell newspapers,
magazines, or even apples.
I remember that when I turned 13,
I started cutting sugar cane.
The closure will mean the loss of land
and the migration of thousands
of people from Tucumn
who won't be able to do anything
in the province...
I moved to Buenos Aires
after the sugar mills closed in 1966.
And there began
my pilgrimage to find work.
I moved to a boarding house.
There were many old boarding houses
that were inexpensive,
but you had to share
a room with five people
who would come for work and then stay.
I first worked with a Chilean,
then with someone from Tucumn.
"The kid knows a bit about plaster,
take him along."
"He's looking for a job."
"Alright, be ready tomorrow."
I made a fortune
building plaster wardrobes.
Of course, I liked making money,
but I also began to like the trade.
I didn't find it heavy going.
I had already done harder things.
That trade could lead me anywhere.
The bigger the town, the more work I had,
because there was more construction.
There were these Uruguayans
with whom I played soccer.
I told them I was from Tucumn,
so they called me "Diaguita."
That was the first time I thought
that I could be Indigenous.
The problem started in 1975
with the inflation and the price spikes.
To get away from it,
I decided to spend a month in Tucumn.
I came on my own, as I usually did.
Cirilo Balderrama.
My father.
I didn't know where he lived,
or who he was.
He sent me half a cheese wheel.
And I took it.
"Go meet him, he's your family,"
they said.
I was born in Zrate Norte,
right at the exit of San Pedro.
So I was familiar with the area.
Thanks to the directions I had,
I made it to Cirilo's house.
It wasn't a grand ceremony, so to speak.
We shook hands and that was it.
I had come just to meet him
and then leave.
But they mentioned some problems with Amn
who was charging grazing fees
and taking their animals away.
This is the remainder of La Higuera Estate
which was supposedly owned
by Francisco Colombres.
He would order:
"Go put a marker on that tree,
and on that other," and so on.
That's how they seized it.
They behaved like landowners,
but didn't have the deeds.
Part of this estate was sold over and over
until it landed
in the hands of the Amn family.
We spent more than 40 years
filing requests and writing letters
to different entities
asking to solve the land issues.
Everyone was getting lawsuits
and threats, eviction attempts.
They took everything they could.
They confiscated goats, cows, horses.
Later, they came for the crops.
We started sharing the harvest.
They did give us materials
to sow, it's true,
but they took advantage of people
and kept the harvest, the profits.
Cirilo, my father, told me,
they had spoken many times
to the Governor, Juri "the Turk,"
who said he would expropriate
the estate in favor of the people here.
They would not give up the land for free.
Payment was required.
The land was indeed expropriated,
but despite that,
they never handed it over.
I started investigating
until I got the plans
from the Bureau
of State-Owned Real Estate.
There, I saw that all the families
were located within government-owned land.
State-owned estate.
I already had a ticket
to go back to Buenos Aires.
I could have left them on their own,
said it was their problem.
But I felt that I was part of this.
So I decided to stay.
It's something intangible.
It's a feeling
that's been welling up inside me,
I don't know when.
Look up.
That painting shows
when the Indigenous
attempted to break into the city.
See how these angels
fought to keep the Indigenous out,
and they sent these beams
to scare them away.
Tucumn was inhabited
by different peoples.
They practiced agriculture,
but war was their passion.
They loved fighting.
It is also said they were good athletes.
Back then, the North of Argentina
was one big province
called Salta de Tucumn.
It was composed by Jujuy, Salta, Tucumn...
Listening to him,
you realize how convinced he is
that even God wants to erase us for good.
The same God we believe in now
was against us, like the painting shows.
It's hard to make these people understand.
It's sad because the Argentine State
was created that way.
Establishing that we are bad.
Members from other communities
don't believe in God.
- They don't...
- Exactly.
Meaning, they have other beliefs.
Jos was baptized there.
- How far did you go in school?
- Second grade.
- Second grade?
- Javier finished third grade.
There were no more grades.
It would take us an hour,
an hour and a half on foot.
We would walk there.
"What can you draw
that starts with letter 'I'?"
"An Indian."
"So, draw a person. An Indian."
Some of us would draw it
standing with the bow and arrow.
Others with the Argentine bola.
The more skilled ones
would draw him riding a horse.
Back then,
my mom, my older brothers and grown-ups
would handle the lawsuits.
People would try to evict us,
while at school we were being taught
about who discovered America.
About the Santa Mara,
La Nia and La Pinta.
The heroes of the Nation.
They never taught us
that we were actually Indigenous.
They never taught us about our rights.
We were taught what the books said.
That this country
had been inhabited by Indigenous peoples.
Very little was said about the fact
that Indigenous peoples still inhabit it.
That we are still here.
The river has been swollen for three days.
The kids are sheltering
at the orco school.
They couldn't cross the river.
We come from a people
that has been erased for years.
Our history has been distorted,
turned upside-down.
They have even stripped us
of our language,
but we do exist.
That teacher has made sacrifices
to be able to graduate and work.
Sadly, he needs to teach this
because that's what the job mandates.
It's likely that we don't teach
a lot about Indigenous peoples
because the priority is world history.
We must teach the curriculum
provided by the State.
So what they tell us to prioritize,
that's what we have to teach.
We see nowadays
that kids do finish high-school.
But then you see a marked depopulation.
And I see an inconsistency,
like a contradiction, right?
The struggle for the land
and at the same time, the depopulation.
Why would you fight for a land
that you are not going to use?
We Indigenous peoples do exist
and we have the right to live on our land.
And that's how the community began.
First, by obtaining the legal entity.
Holding the actual documents,
and not giving up.
Not leaving our land.
Having discussions.
Listening to the someone's opinion.
And then someone else's.
Knowing where we all stand.
Because history starts here.
They say: "We own this land."
But, as I say,
the paper doesn't question the pen.
To me, they took advantage
of other people's labor.
That's what Cafrune says in his song.
Work is a good thing
It's life's best
But life is lost at work
In someone else's ranch
Some work like thunder
While others enjoy the rain
The rancher boasts
Of gaucho ways and arrogance
He believes it's extravagance
For his ranch hand to live a cut above
But the gentleman doesn't know
That his ranch hand is the reason
His ranch endures its season
That's the way of the land.
It belongs to those who work it.
They might say:
"They are lazy, they don't work."
I think that those who live with us,
they know how we live,
what we do and why we do it.
And those who don't live here,
they don't know.
They don't know.
Come here, little one.
These are my sisters, Luisa and Antonia.
The older one got married
and moved to Buenos Aires.
She left in 1954.
Her husband worked at a foundry.
He was a metalworker.
She worked in a sewing workshop.
They used to send clothes to Tucumn.
Stores like Casa Heredia or Gath & Chaves...
They don't exist anymore.
They were good clothes.
My sister Luisa was a Peronist.
Antonia too.
She complained,
saying she hadn't had a breaded cutlet
since Pern's times.
"The last breaded cutlet I had
was with Pern," she said.
I was 12 or 13 when I left,
I don't remember.
That's when they sent me to Buenos Aires.
Since my sister was pregnant,
I had to take care of the other baby.
I had to wash his diapers,
his baby clothes, and bathe him.
But I didn't hang out or play with him.
I didn't like that.
Then, I looked for another job
cleaning houses.
The neighborhood was Villa Urquiza,
in the city of Buenos Aires.
I had to work in different houses
for three, four, two hours and so on.
I was always running
to catch the bus or the train.
But it paid well.
They are Clarisa and Fermina.
They were from Chasquivil.
Right after school,
they moved to the city to work.
They didn't play,
but took a photo pretending to.
Guillermina Olivar.
What a dress, right?
She was also raised with us in the house.
She became a domestic worker,
I don't know what became of her.
That's me.
I might be 17 or 18, I'm not sure.
I was a housekeeper.
Those of us who lived in
had Thursday afternoons off
to do some shopping or go out.
And back to work in the evening.
Work in the mountain
is very different from the city.
I felt embarrassed
because I didn't know how to clean well.
There was no flooring in rural homes.
There is now!
But not back then.
The boss one day came to me and said:
"Hi, Mara, here's your payment,
but you can't work here anymore."
I asked her why.
The front door was white.
And I didn't know
it needed cleaning every day.
"Tell me how to do it,
and I will do as you say,
if you want me to continue."
And I kept working.
From then on, I did as she said.
Francisco, my brother.
He also went to Buenos Aires to work.
In Sudamtex, a textile factory.
He worked there for like 15 years.
Now he lives in Chuscha with his family.
That's you, Dad.
Is that me?
Of course!
Yes.
That's me.
That's also me.
It wasn't hard to find a job.
Many used to leave.
Many young people.
Not only from Tucumn,
but also from other provinces.
This man in the white shirt
used to live up in the mountains.
He was a police officer in Buenos Aires.
He died a long time ago.
That's a friend of mine from Corrientes.
We became friends.
We celebrated together,
we visited each other.
We were homesick.
- That's Aunt Mara.
- Auntie.
Because we learned
that it's harder on our own.
She looks so pretty.
We need each other
to start building national unity...
I don't like Buenos Aires.
I don't like the weather.
That's my sister Delfina.
Nancy's mother.
My brother gave her that fabric.
I guess they must have sold him
the remnants from the factory.
It was pink.
She died.
So I raised my son and Nancy together.
I bartered knitted garments
for the tuition fees.
Young girls aren't like that now.
They aren't interested in crafts.
Can you weave?
- No.
- What about knitting?
- What about you?
- I can't.
- You both work as maids, right?
- Yes.
But I've always been treated well.
- I've never had any problems.
- Right.
Yeah.
Now I work in Chuscha.
And I come home on the weekends.
- Have you finished high school?
- I have.
Grandma.
That's life.
You learn to move around in the city,
working there.
Judges' houses, lawyers',
teachers', doctors' houses.
When I turned 18,
I wanted to leave that behind
and work on my own.
I'd go to the cemetery at 5 a.m.
to sell flowers.
On Father's Day and Mother's Day,
I'd sell a lot of carnations.
Then, I worked selling ice cream.
- Where's your house?
- Over there.
- Huh?
- It is over there.
Here's the turn, look.
- Oh, you're right.
- That way.
All the way, I used to go all the way.
And from there, down.
The path to go see you.
All that.
I hope that our children and those to come
don't have to go through what we faced.
And that would be...
And we're all together.
I'm tired.
Let's rest up a bit. It's hot.
- Where should we build our house?
- Over there I think.
Close to that one but farther up.
See how the grass is growing? Look.
- Where?
- Over there, that's it.
- I see. It's dry.
- Yes.
You have to dig that little edge.
But I was thinking
of a small excavation first.
And from there, then... fill all that in.
Then we can build.
We should take the way up
like the school kids, look.
From there, the plateau,
you can see everything,
when they go to school
and when they leave.
We can build two rooms...
Was there phone reception?
How far did it go?
- How far did it go?
- Up to the churqui tree.
- Up to the churqui.
- All the way there?
- Here too.
- Here too?
- The whole area.
- But is it good?
Yes, 4G.
- Really?
- But it doesn't work very well.
You're out of credit.
- No credit?
- I topped it up yesterday.
Remember the goats you saw over there?
- Whose were they?
- Ovando's, they left.
- I think there's two still here.
- Over there, look.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Is it recording?
- Yes?
- Take the floor, counsel.
Thank you very much.
I will try to get to the point,
it's been a long day
and we have gone over the events
multiple times.
At this trial we all know what happened
and we saw it play out in this Court.
We have had the chance
to see people pass through
trying to highlight
the rights of the Indigenous.
I greatly respect the rights
they might have,
but in this case, the subject of debate
is not their right to the lands.
In fact, it's not proven
that they own the land.
These people arrived peacefully,
and they found themselves
cornered, locked in and besieged,
by those who now call themselves
a community.
Who took away their weapons?
Was it only Superman Cata
who took them all?
During the reconstruction,
he clearly states
that he grabbed the weapon.
Delfn Cata could have easily
pulled the trigger
that caused the death of Mr. Chocobar.
To paraphrase historian
Carlos Pez de la Torre Jr.,
in an article from the newspaper La Gaceta
this historian expresses that in 1807
it was officially declared
that the Chuschagasta Community
was extinct.
Did I write that?
It's the first time that I hear
that this article
has had an impact
other than somebody reading it.
How remarkable!
I wrote it just to add some flair,
to depict an auction back in those days.
But I don't remember
the moment I wrote it.
I write every day, imagine that.
If I had to research every day
to write this stuff, I would die.
The lands were vacant,
completely uninhabited.
And...
we are talking about the Chuschas,
as they were called Chuschas,
not Chuschagasta.
It was a place where nothing existed.
This is confirmed
by the Registry of the Title III
in the Historical Provincial Archives.
It's certified and included in the book
written by Perilli de Colombres,
whom this defense tried
to get to come here to explain.
There's not much to explain about
where the name Chuschagasta comes from.
It comes from "chuschas,"
we say "chuschar"
when we want to pull someone's hair.
And for the Indigenous peoples,
their hair was a symbol of...
pride.
So they were called the Chuschagasta,
which means "the people with the hair."
We try to follow
the evolution of the lands
from the first owners.
We are talking about when the...
First there were Indigenous towns,
but later there were the Spanish owners
and their descendants.
And we try to trace it to the present day
because many families
still own those lands.
The Trancas area was populated
by many Indigenous groups.
According to the Spanish colonial law,
all Indigenous peoples were to have land.
Jacinto Chocobar is the flag bearer!
The banner is carried by Daniel Mamani!
Perico Balderrama!
Julin Balderrama!
Trancas and Burruyacu
were the defense zones
against the Indigenous peoples.
They would raid the estates,
take the livestock,
steal women, children.
They were ferocious.
The gauchos of our motherland!
Of our Argentina!
The Indigenous peoples
took part in the Independence struggles,
but they were somehow silenced.
Their voice doesn't appear again.
In 1808, a man, Nicols Molina,
came forward demanding
that the lands be sold to him.
He claimed that there were no more
Chuschagasta Indigenous peoples.
That the lands were in the hands
of tramps and bandits.
So he ordered to call the Chuschagasta
to see if there were any left.
But none came forward.
According to this file,
no representative did.
We are a republic.
And since the moment we became a republic
the territories were delimited and marked.
We have a Land Registry,
so we must respect the institutions
and respect the records created.
When the period of independence began,
the Indigenous towns
became somewhat displaced
because individual property
started being consolidated.
You see deed papers and...
well, you think they legitimize the owner.
The Indigenous peoples didn't have them.
In that sense, the communities
were not protected by the documents.
That's what piques my interest.
The existence of the documents.
All those studies
on the Indigenous peoples
seem like fantasy to me.
And on the Indigenous language.
"Turns out this word is Kakn,
there's a Kakn lexicon..."
That depresses me greatly.
For a long time, nobody talked
about Indigenous communities.
And suddenly, they surfaced.
Now they are all demanding land,
quite violently, in some cases.
There are now some problems
with the Chuschagasta,
the chief who was killed...
How could they prove
their Indigenous community identity?
They no longer speak the language,
they don't have distinctive traits.
But we have to think
that even Indigenous peoples
couldn't keep their name.
Let that sink in.
One must write the truth.
So to speak.
What is the truth?
In the film The Devil's Disciple,
with Laurence Olivier,
at the end, they say:
"What will history say, General?"
So Laurence Olivier turns and says:
"History will lie, as it always has."
Cirilo, my father, told me
there was a peach tree there.
My grandfather was born there.
They were farmhands
who worked gathering the livestock,
either for sale, for branding,
to milk, to make cheese.
There, the gang of laborers,
as they were labeled,
did all the work.
They were Indigenous,
but their name was changed.
They called them "gang of laborers."
Then they called them "gauchos."
Everyone who wants a piece of the land
says that the Indigenous peoples
have all disappeared.
That they have all gone,
the Chuschagastas too.
They represented an obstacle
to them seizing the land, as always.
Your Honor,
can you hear me?
It's been 350 years
since the Chuschas have been here.
After the Calchaqu Wars,
they were forced by the king
to come to this valley
just like the Tolombn and the Colalao.
They were registered as "Chuchingasta,"
"Chachagasta,"
"Chuchagasti,"
"Chugasta,"
"Chuscas,"
"Chujcha."
Or sometimes just "Indians."
They raised oxen to replace cart animals
and livestock to feed caravaners.
Where Route 9 now runs,
the Royal Road once passed.
Along that road, carts traveled
to the silver mines of Potos.
It has been said that the Chuschas
became extinct in 1807,
but in 1807 the Chuschas
were paying rent to a certain Alurralde.
They were charged
without the king's permission.
The Cabildo removed
the Alurralde family from there.
Their descendants,
whose last name was Colombres,
had been collecting documents:
testaments, land surveys,
land sales within families.
They made a clever move.
They claimed that an Alurralde
had bequeathed the estate to them.
They called it La Higuera Estate.
And they kept charging the Chuschas.
Records show cooks, laundresses,
farmhands worked there
under the surnames Balderrama, Mamani,
Cata, Vargas, Pistn, Chocobar.
No longer registered as "Chuschas."
The Colombres family
sold part of that land.
That's what the Amn family got in 1959.
The Chuschas wrote
to the Government of Tucumn
to have their land situation reviewed.
This alerted the Colombres.
They needed a document.
What did the Colombres show
as evidence in court?
The rent receipts they collected
from the Chuschas, Your Honor.
Behold,
the history of property in this valley.
Governor Juri expropriated the Colombres.
It seems like good news
for the Chuscha families.
But you'll see.
Colombres received a hefty payout
for the expropriation.
Amn and a neighbor, Critto,
move forward on the expropriated land.
A certain Araujo, public servant Chiarello
and her brother Dante
claimed they own the lands
of community member Salvador Cata.
Which national institution
cares about the legitimacy of property?
Some things are simply shameful,
Your Honor.
The accused and their main witnesses,
and all the alleged owners
of this territory
hold or have held positions
in the Government of Tucumn.
Except for the Chuschas.
The Chuschas have spent years
doing paperwork,
writing letters, waiting in hallways,
in front desks,
respecting the country's institutions
like no other.
The Republic has shown greater respect
for the colonial records
than for Argentine citizens.
Do you believe in God, Your Honor?
Is God seeing all of this?
Don't be afraid.
Don't be upset,
nothing bad will happen to you.
Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid.
Nothing bad will happen to you.
You are with your mommy.
The movie depicted Christian characters,
and they suffered
under the rule of the Roman Empire.
- Ben-Hur?
- Ben-Hur, yes.
If we bring that to the present day,
the members of our communities
have endured a similar fate.
The life of a mule
was worth more than a human's
because they had to pay for the mule.
The movie showed
the true colors of the empire.
Many empires have fallen,
and other empires are rising.
That is the core meaning of the movie.
It awoke this feeling in me
in relation to us.
I own all those colors.
Don't be afraid.
I love them all. All of them.
Don't be afraid.
You are with mommy.
Present!
- Javier Chocobar!
- Is present!
EMERGENCY EXIBy unanimous vote, the Court rules
to condemn Daro Luis Amn
for considering him the principal author
of the crime of aggravated homicide
by the use of a firearm,
sentencing him to serve
22 years in prison.
To sentence Luis Humberto Gmez,
secondary participant, to serve 18 years.
To sentence Eduardo Jos del Milagro
Valdivieso Sassi
to serve ten years in prison.
INFANTRY
Never give up on the people's fight!
Javier Chocobar!
- Justice for Javier Chocobar!
- Justice!
- Javier Chocobar!
- Present!
- Now!
- And forever!
Cinema? I think I have never been to one.
I've listened to the radio,
but only since 1963 or 1964.
And I only just started
watching TV recently.
A few years ago.
Surely our generations
will keep fighting with the hope
that many people are working
for the good of humanity.
This world would be so beautiful
if all of us could see
the wonder that we are as human beings.
When we sing, when we smile,
when we make music,
when we look into the eyes
of each wonderful person.
But it's so sad when someone
ravages, kills, destroys.
I believe that if they found
another planet in the universe
they would also tear it apart.
The convicts appealed the verdict.
Two years later, in 2020,
they were released.
Daro Amn passed away in 2021
due to COVID-19.
In 2025, the sentence was upheld.
Luis Humberto Gmez and Eduardo Valdivieso
returned to prison.
The Chuschagasta Indigenous Community
continues to demand
the restitution of their territory
from the Argentine State
and keeps the memory
of Javier Chocobar alive.
Dedicated to the Chuschagasta
Indigenous Community
and their current appointed leader,
Azucena Cata,
without whom this film
would not have been possible.