Argentina’s Indigenous peoples have just lost their principal legal safeguard against evictions from their ancestral lands. President Javier Milei enacted a presidential decree of necessity and urgency on Tuesday, overturning the country’s Territorial Emergency Law which recognized the pre-existence of Argentina’s Indigenous peoples and afforded protections for registered groups from being forced out from lands traditionally occupied by Indigenous communities.

The law was renewed via decree in 2021, but Milei’s 1083/2024 emergency decree  — a tool usually reserved for very specific occasions — overturned it on Tuesday. 

“There is no reason that could justify the emergency to remain in place. Its renewal would mean the consolidation of discrimination between Argentine citizens,” claimed the decree, which was signed by most of Milei’s ministers and will go into effect on December 11. It also contended that the law “prevents the free exercise of productive and recreational activities on the lands involved, as well as limits the right to dispose of such resources.”

The Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) condemned the move, saying that government officials are “unfurling their racist discourse” against Indigenous communities and highlighting that before being slashed, the law’s implementation was “lukewarm and erratic.”

“The law was a protective tool against the criminalization of these communities defending their rights, which is why its enforcement is essential. It provided a response, albeit partial, to a debt owed by the Argentine State to our Indigenous peoples and to comply with obligations assumed by the state before international human rights organizations,” said the human rights nonprofit in a communiqué on Tuesday afternoon.

This isn’t the first rollback of Indigenous rights carried out by the administration. In November, Argentina was the only country to vote against a draft resolution on Indigenous Peoples’ rights aimed at preserving their spiritual beliefs, ancestral knowledge, and languages. 

In late September, the government also suspended a registry that allowed Indigenous communities to earn legal status, garnering a concerned response from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In a statement published last week, the commission said that the move “may undermine” the protection of Indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories, and natural resources and their right to self-determination.

“This decision was made without consulting Indigenous peoples and potentially affects at least 250 of Argentina’s 1881 officially identified Indigenous communities,” the IACHR said in its statement. Out of those communities, 47% have yet to conduct the mandatory territorial survey, they added.

The IACHR also mentioned “broader setbacks in the recognition of Indigenous territories” as well as “forced evictions” that took place in Jujuy, Río Negro, and Chubut provinces earlier this year even despite the 2006 Territorial Emergency Law.

Some of those evictions included institutional violence and the stigmatization of leaders and members of Indigenous communities, including the murder of a Mapuche man called Juan Carlos Villa in Río Negro. Villa was killed on August 11 by a provincial police officer, who has since been removed from duty and is now facing trial.

The IACHR urged Argentina to “implement effective administrative mechanisms to safeguard the Indigenous peoples’ territorial rights, including recognizing their legal personality and ensuring land restitution.” The organization pointed out that those measures should be consulted and informed to the communities while respecting their cultural identity.

Argentina’s National Constitution states that the National Congress must recognize the ethnic and cultural preexistence of the Indigenous peoples in Argentina. This includes acknowledging their legal status and the property of the land they have traditionally occupied.