When Moni* signed the letter on 15 February 2022, she was not doing it just for herself. “No one is safe here, not even the chief’s daughter,” says the 30-year-old Wichí woman, one of 14 indigenous peoples in Argentina’s north-western Salta province.
Moni is among 170 members of the Wichí who live in Misión Kilómetro 2 (Mission Kilometre 2). They live in the shadow of Pluma de Pato (Duck Feather), a village of around 200 criollo people, who define themselves as white and of European descent. The two communities sit directly opposite one another, separated by national highway Route 81.
On one side of the road are the Wichí’s tin-roofed shacks, supported by wooden poles and walls built from scraps of plastic and tree branches, surrounded by fences made of scrap wood. Opposite are the cement and brick houses of Pluma de Pato.
