Félix Díaz (cacique)

Félix Díaz (born 28 December 1959)

is an Argentine activist on behalf of the civil rights of the Qom people in Argentina.

He is the qarashé of the Potae Napocna Navogoh, also known as Colonia La Primavera in the province of Formosa.

He was on duty in Rosario during the 1978 World Cup, and took part in military exercises in the confrontation with Chile in the Beagle conflict of 1979.

He decided not to remain in the army on learning of the abuses it was committing against Argentine civilians.

He was a Mormon pastor, public employee, and an official of the Institute against Discrimination (INADI).

During the December 2001 economic crisis he coordinated a local bartering scheme.

The governor of Formosa, Gildo Insfrán, in 2010 promoted the construction of a student institute attached to the National University of Formosa, to be built near the Pilcomayo national park.

The Qom community of La Primavera claimed to have title to this land, and conflict broke out on commencement of the work.

Díaz and other Qom residents closed the National Route 86 road as a protest, arguing that the Argentine constitution granted indigenous peoples the rights to their ancestral lands.

The construction works were halted pending a decision of the Argentine Supreme Court.

On 23 November 2010, while Díaz and other Qom were holding a demonstration on the site, members of a family named Celía arrived to claim that they had title to the land.

There were incidents and shots were fired, with Qom and police both complaining of aggression against them.

While the provincial police were removing obstructions on the route, a Qom, Roberto López, and a police officer were killed.

Díaz and 23 other Qom faced criminal charges of occupying and taking over lands.

After these incidents, Díaz and his community moved their protest to the city of Buenos Aires, but no public or governmental body paid attention to the issue, with the exception of Florencio Randazzo who met Félix Díaz.

Pope Francis, concerned by the seriousness of the events, also met Díaz.

In spite of these meetings, the threats to the Qom did not cease.

The Spanish newspaper El País named him among the 100 most outstanding Iberoamerican people of 2011.

The Supreme Court of Justice arranged a public hearing for 7 March 2012, which set out the issues regarding the territories and the violence against the natives.

Díaz' defense lawyer argued that the prosecution had ignored the evidence presented by Díaz, accepting only the police testimonies.

In April 2012, the case against Díaz and the 23 members of the community was dismissed for lack of evidence.

In November the Court of Appeal of Resistencia withdrew the charges against Díaz and Amanda Asikak in relation to the cutting of the route, the judges holding that that was the only means of protest available to the aborigines.

In August 2012, Díaz was run over by a van while riding his motorcycle.

According to witnesses, the vehicle that hit the cacique was the property of the family claiming the land.

The Interamerican Commission on Human Rights requested the Argentine authorities to take steps to ensure the safety of Díaz and his community, noting that despite a police presence, further threats had been made against the community.

In January 2013, Juan Daniel Asijak, Díaz' 16-year-old nephew, died following a road accident.

He had been struck by a piece of rusty iron that did not seem to have resulted from the accident, and the family suspected murder.

Two other Qom people died in similar incidents around this time.

In 2014, Díaz presented the cause of indigenous peoples in Argentina before the United Nations in New York.

The same year, the "Abya Yala" Commission for Free Peoples (Junta Abya Yala por los Pueblos Libres, JALP) gave Díaz its Conciencia ("Awareness") Award.

At the end of February 2015, Félix Díaz and protestors from the Qom and other indigenous groups from Formosa – Pilagá, Wichí and Nivaclé – set up a protest camp at the junction of Avenida 9 de Julio and Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires.

They were allied in a campaign known as Qopiwini, and the aims of the protest were to condemn the actions of the Formosa provincial government and obtain signatures from citizens supporting their cause.

Díaz proclaimed that after four years, agreements reached had not been implemented.

Amnesty International demanded that the Argentine state should protect the territorial integrity of the community.

The camp drew the attention of international media, including The Guardian.

In April someone on a motorcycle threw a Molotov cocktail at one of the tents.

Since July 2016 he has been president of the Consultative and Participative Council of Indigenous People.

Félix Díaz grew up in the Qom community of Potae Napoqna Navogoh (Colonia la Primavera).

He joined the army, where he learned to read and write.