Argentina has found the state guilty of the massacre of more than 400 indigenous people nearly a century ago. The Qom and Moqoit peoples had been protesting inhumane living and working conditions on a cotton plantation when authorities shot them dead in 1924. Until now, no responsibility had ever been officially acknowledged. A judge has now ordered historical reparations to be awarded to the communities.
A judge has now ordered historical reparations to be awarded to the communities.
The Qom and Moqoit peoples in Argentina's northern Chaco region were living partly-enslaved on a plantation settled by immigrant farmers from Europe. They were underfed, paid with vouchers, taxed for the cotton they harvested and were mostly denied the freedom of movement, the Buenos Aires Times reports, citing court documents.
Many children and elderly people died in the massacre. And those who were wounded and could not escape were killed "in the cruellest form possible with mutilations and burials in common graves," Judge Zunilda Niremperger said.
"The massacre provoked grave consequences, [those people] suffered the trauma of terror and were uprooted with the loss of their language and their culture," Judge Niremperger is quoted as saying.
Argentina found guilty of massacre of Qom and Moqoit people - BBC News
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