Rogelio Tejada’s son shares a photo of his imprisoned father (photo by Julieta Colomer)
Four of the five Wichí brothers held in detention in Las Lomitas, Formosa, were released on Friday. One of them, Ricardo Tejada, remains in prison.
The Tejada brothers –Avelino, Manuel, Esteban, Rogelio, and Ricardo– had been imprisoned since 28th July, awaiting trial on charges of armed robbery in a group with aggravated duress. Following a request from the defence, judge Lilian Fernández overturned the pre-trial detention and changed the charges to “aggravated threats”, which carries a maximum sentence of three years. They also lifted the “fugitive” status of the sixth brother, Evil Tejada.
Talking to local radio stations, Avelino Tejada indicated they do not know why their brother Ricardo remains in prison or when he is going to be released. “We went to see judge [Francisco] Orella at his house today [on Friday] and asked him why he couldn’t rule on [Ricardo's] freedom today, and he said that’s up to prosecutor Zaracho, but at this moment he’s not in Las Lomitas, he travelled to [the city of] Formosa.”
“As long as they don’t release my brother, I’m not going back to my area. I’m going to stay at the prison door because we didn’t do anything wrong,” added Avelino.
Daniel Cabrera, the Tejada brothers’ defence lawyer, said they were notified on Friday that Ricardo, who, he said, “was brutally beaten and shot at by the Formosa police,” had not been released “because he has two cases against him, one for injuries and one for violation of article 194 of the Criminal Code [interfering with transport or public services] and we only found out [on Friday] when they were about to be released.”
He also commented on the state of the Tejada brothers, who are “psychologically degraded and trying to get over the bad times we went through these last few months.”
Speaking about the case, Avelino defended himself and his brothers: “I didn’t threat anyone, we’re indigenous people, we’re peaceful. They [non-indigenous local residents] don’t respect us, they rape so many of our girls, because there are many rapes in the community but when we talk about this no one believes us. We reported it but the judge didn’t pay attention. Our ancestors lived there first, then the creoles arrived. Many laws violate indigenous rights and no one can doubt that.”
The conflict began after local businessman Pila Tedin and his family took over land that the Wichí claim as their own and started fencing it months ago. Members of the community went to talk to the family and also reported to the police the usurpation of the land. When nothing was done to stop them, at the end of July a group went back to the family and demanded they stop, before removing the fencing and confiscating the chainsaw that was being used to construct the fencing. The family reported the incident to police and a judge ordered a dawn raid on the community, involving between 70 and 100 armed police, who entered houses, destroying belongings, beating people, shooting Ricardo Tejada and violently arresting his brothers and Nelgado Galeano.
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