The tucumano leader who fought for indigenous territories at the UN and saved his people

Eduardo Nieva left Amaicha del Valle, a small native town of Diaguita origin, at the age of 18. He went to Buenos Aires to study law at the National University of Lomas de Zamora because he felt that in his city, someone had to understand the right to defend the interests of the community itself. even. What I did not know was that I would end up fighting for the rights and the territory of indigenous peoples in Washington and at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. An experience that brought him back to Amaicha with the necessary tools to take the cacicazgo and develop his community. But first, you had to heal. Nieva had returned almost unable to walk.

"I did not know how to use the train, I was afraid to get in. I did not even know that San Miguel de Tucumán and I were coming to Buenos Aires to study law, motivated by a cacique named Reymundo Silva. not what legal status was I said that someone should know about it in our community, then I went to the University of Lomas, then there were roads that I did not Did not wait, I ended up walking in the 10 blocks where the world is headed, to Washington, "says Nieva.

He was an introverted young man who had left his village of 7,000 inhabitants located in the Tafí del Valle department, northwest of the province of Tucumán, with a mission. In Amaicha, the mothers teach the law by the orality. But he felt that this would not be enough to defend Amaicha's interests in a world where the situation of the peoples of origin is complex. "I was extremely shy – one teacher said that he was selfish because I had studied and studied but that I had never spoken in clbad. "He forced me to stop and talk and I had a heat all over my body." But it was he that helped me outsource what I knew. "

He finished the race at age 24 and decided to compete for a grant in the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples in La Paz, Bolivia. There were three places available and he was able to occupy one of them for a job that he presented on the ancestral property of the territories.

"I went to study in Bolivia and 50 years after the Organization of American States (OAS), they sent me to Washington.It was in 1997. What am I I'm going to do there, I wondered, I did not even know how to speak that language, I saw walking in the stables where the IMF, the OAS, the White House, the Bank are located. Life is incredible, and all these organizations have opened my mind a lot. "

In Washington, he prepared the American Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with other young people and went to the UN headquarters in Geneva to defend this project. A fight as rewarding as it is exhausting.

"These were very rich years, I was one of the leading advocates to defend the project.I came to debate with the American ambbadadors hand in hand.Many of those with whom I am working have a lot of people. I argued were experts on restricting rights instead of extending them.We met all the conditions to be considered a people, but they always told us that we were ethnic.That's why I had to be well prepared I think that those years, I became a good fighter. "

After more than 15 years of travel and debate around the world, Nieva has decided to return to Argentina. "I missed a lot," he says. He suffers from asthma. Climate change and the need to discuss in international forums have affected their health. "I thought I was dying I went back to Amaicha practically unable to walk in. The asthma was killing me and I went straight to say goodbye to my family, I thought that it would was finished. "

Nieva returned to Amaicha to die or heal. He found his grandparents who treated them with traditional medicine. The treatment consisted of drinking donkey milk and immersion baths. "Six months later, he was already walking in. Whatever it is, there is a big component here," he says, pointing to his head. Then his relatives asked him to become the cacique. His community was broken and divided. And it was so. In just 38 years, he became the youngest leader in his community.

"In Amaicha, a chief used resources without accountability to the people. He had also divided the population a lot. Amaicha was devastated. Internal divisions in the villages are a curse. We started working with several NGOs to restore the institutionality of the community. and today, after much work, we have grown a lot and we have an infinite number of very large and interesting projects. "

Nieva revolutionized Amaicha. Currently working with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to promote an intercultural justice project, where they can live together the state justice and traditional justice of their community, consisting of a council of old ones who debate and rule by consensus And dialogue. Although this board usually deals with simpler issues such as legacies or problems related to territory or theft, for example, a goat.

"The idea is that, in the case of a serious crime, the council of elders also participate in the court process, even as a complainant." We are currently badessing with the ministry what the board's involvement might be. We already have a center for access to justice and the Minister Germán Garavano visited us ". It was part of a ministry program called Corredor Norandino, in which they took a doctor and a lawyer to mobile offices to reach difficult access villages to help and advise people.

Since 2015, Nieva, in collaboration with the National University of Lomas de Zamora (UNLZ), has developed a degree in indigenous governance, where he is currently a teacher. It is the only university in the country to provide this specific training in law and government to indigenous peoples, which has been promoted by the Dean of the Faculty of Law, María Fernanda Vazquez.

"The diploma was designed to create educational spaces for the appropriation and production of knowledge about indigenous cultures, within the framework of new paradigms of protection and promotion of human rights. Through access to new knowledge, the establishment and consolidation of strategies for indigenous governance and good living, it is essential to contribute to the training of young leaders, "said Fabio Arce. , Secretary of University Extension and Student Welfare at UNLZ Law School.

Today, Amaicha is a growing community without losing its essence. They have a large number of ongoing projects that are unprecedented for such a community. They created the Amaichas Community Vineyard that breaks with the traditional structure of any business. They have only one CUIT in front of the AFIP and have not individualized those who work there.

"We are all one – says Nieva – it's very innovative, here everything is common, we produce 50,000 liters of Malbec a year and 10,000 liters of Creole wine, and the surpluses are paid to people who have taken out loans. at very low rates of 12% or 14% This is a unique case We must learn to share The capitalist world lets you fall into individualism and self-containment But you must give yourself the opportunity to to share what we have, "he concluded.