Reports indicate that on November 16 at least ten people assaulted a camp used to store road construction equipment located along Route 40 in Villa Mascardi, Bariloche. The attack took place minutes after midnight. The assailants manhandled a guard and subsequently set three road construction machines on fire. Before fleeing the scene the attackers left pamphlets with insignia from the Mapuche Ancestral Resistance (RAM) group. The messages stated opposition to oil, mining and logging companies operating in Patagonia.
As previously assessed, further attacks from RAM are likely in the foreseeable future.
The group is mostly composed of small cells of assailants and seeks to establish a Mapuche nation-state in southern Argentina and Chile. It is known to carry out arson attacks against property and vehicles belonging to landowners. Additionally, the group has targeted public infrastructure and has also threatened to bomb the Vaca Muerta oil and shale gas field located in the Neuquén Province. In this context, indigenous activism is likely to surge as a reaction to attempts to prosecute protesters who often scuffle with security agents outside the premises of drilling facilities in Vaca Muerta.
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