The native Mapuche people in Southern Chile and Argentina date back thousands of years. In 2004, the Indigenous people in Southern Argentina say the Italian Clothing company Benetton is the newest conquistador in hundreds of years of land struggle. The Carlo Benetton family is the largest landholder in Argentina, owning 2.2 million acres in the resource rich region of Patagonia. 10 percent of the company's wool production comes from the property. The debate over land recently heated up when the Benetton subsidiary, Argentine Southern Lands Company, pressed charges and against a mapuche family for usurping unoccupied land they claimed theirs. In May 2004, the native family was found guilty, and were forced to abandon their ancestral lands. Pauline Bartolone has more on the eviction of mapuche people in Argentina.
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The native Mapuche people in Southern Chile and Argentina date back thousands of years. In 2004, the Indigenous people in Southern Argentina say the Italian Clothing company Benetton is the newest conquistador in hundreds of years of land struggle. The Carlo Benetton family is the largest landholder in Argentina, owning 2.2 million acres in the resource rich region of Patagonia. 10 percent of the company's wool production comes from the property. The debate over land recently heated up when the Benetton subsidiary, Argentine Southern Lands Company, pressed charges and against a mapuche family for usurping unoccupied land they cla...
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