Our Land

Come on!

Good pass.

Come on!

- Come on. - Now.

- Go, go, go. - Coming in!

Come on.

Oh, girl.

Good pass.

Almost, Angélica.

POLICE

We are gathered in this trial that the Province of Tucumán carries

against Luis Humberto Gómez,

Eduardo José del Milagro Valdivieso Sassi,

and Darío Luis Amín,

for aggravated attempted homicide in real concurrence

and illegal possession of firearms.

Mr. Luis Humberto Gómez, please come forward.

They are bringing you a chair.

- Do you have any children? - I do, three.

How old are they?

They are of legal age.

Any addictions?

None.

- Do you drink? - No cigarettes, no alcohol, no drugs.

- Any other pending cases? - None.

- Any convictions? - None.

- No pending cases? - None.

Very well.

Darío Luis Amín.

How old are you, sir?

I'm forty-five.

What do you do?

I work for the Honorable Legislature.

Where?

Historical Heritage.

Eduardo José del Milagro Valdivieso Sassi.

What do you do?

I am a retired police officer and a farmer.

- Any pending criminal cases? - No pending cases.

Any previous convictions?

None.

It might be appropriate

that I now clarify what the long-standing relationship is

that I have with the two co-defendants in the case.

Valdivieso and I worked together in the police force.

Well, many here have a friend who always tags along.

For me, that's him.

Wherever I went, he would come.

So, I invited him.

I met Darío Amín about 20 years ago.

We then developed a relationship that went beyond the personal.

It consisted in contributing a certain amount of capital,

to carry out a mining venture that we were developing.

That day we had a camera

because we had to take pictures of what we needed to do...

to start a mining path, and what materials we...

To see whether we needed a bulldozer or any other thing

to start the path again since many years had passed.

They started taking pictures.

I asked who these people were. I was told they were locals.

They took photos of us.

I asked why they were photographing the license plate and whatnot.

And they said

that they were Indigenous, allegedly, and wanted to take over

a property that supposedly belonged to Amín.

I backed away, avoided the conflict,

went down with Darío, and that's when they surrounded us,

attack us, I was clearly attacked.

I felt like death was there.

They were never aware of the fact that I have a mother and two kids.

They publicly called me "the murderer."

And they labeled me as "the murderer."

They labeled me as "the murderer."

And I was not on trial yet.

And I'm not a murderer either!

I was home.

I am no criminal. I am a family man.

I'm a farmer, my kids attend a religious school.

It's not as the prosecutor said.

I'm not a crook, nor a paramilitary task force member.

I have nothing to do with that.

I have honorable friends,

I cannot be accused like this.

The prosecutor inquires why we were armed.

I would ask instead: "Who prohibits that I carry a gun?"

Us police officers do not lose our status as officers.

I am proud to be a retired police officer.

Thank God I had a gun, or I wouldn't be here to explain.

It's recording now.

Hold it for me.

Who's in charge here?

No one is in charge here.

- No one? - No one.

Fine, then. See you later. Take care.

Put the...

You need to drive down the hill.

- No. - What?

- I mean, you have to... - No.

- Are you driving up? - Yeah.

Be careful with...

the ravine.

Are you recording?

- Their faces, I mean. - Yeah, man.

- Point it at them, keep your cool. - I see them.

Kick the four-wheel drive in.

- They're taking pictures. - Yeah, let them.

What for? No one at the court listens to them anymore.

POLICE

Today, here in this place,

where chief Javier Chocobar was murdered nine years ago

there will be an official re-enactment conducted by the jury.

The Forensic Investigation Team from the Prosecutor's Office

is handling all the technical aspects

besides security that is handled by members of the police force...

We were coming through here in our Land Rover, at 6 p.m.

Darío Amín was driving, I was to his right

and Valdivieso was in the back.

Here, we made the first visual contact

with these people, who were over there.

I waved from my seat, they didn't respond, so we kept going.

When we got here, by that post was a gate and a sign that said:

"No Trespassing. Chuschagasta Community."

Something like that.

I saw in the rearview mirror people were approaching from behind.

So when we all realize, I tell them both:

"Don't step out of the car because they might think

that if it's three of us, we are looking for some kind of trouble."

So, I got out all by myself

and went to meet them.

I say: "Good afternoon. Who is in charge here?"

Making these gestures. "Who is in charge here?"

So they... Go on please, walk past me as closely as you can.

That's it.

So they replied: "No one is in charge, this belongs to the community."

What did I do in response?

"Very well, then. Good afternoon!"

And doing nothing else, we turned around and drove away.

And that's the end of that scene.

Valdivieso said: "I will take a nap."

Our intention was to make it to the mining path.

I suggest you stand there, I'll point that way and behind my back.

Okay.

When we saw that people were coming down,

I told Darío to start recording and let me do the talking.

And they gestured like this. You stand there.

You can clearly see it in the video.

So, they forced me to turn around.

You three, walk over there gesticulating like this.

- This way? - Same as in the video.

- Like this? - Yes, exactly.

I told them: "I don't want any trouble."

"I will report you all to the authorities."

He then came up to me, saying: "What are you gonna do?"

- Do it, please. - Hands outward.

- Good. - That's it.

So I was now seeing that he was holding a rock,

and I was not sure about the other.

But I couldn't let anybody grab me like this.

So, when he did that, I acted on instinct.

- I did that. - Here, take it. The gun.

I won't do it again.

What I did was part of my training. It's natural.

The Argentine State trained me to do that.

The Argentine State.

I drew my weapon and kept it down.

Or they would have killed me. That's what I thought.

I kept talking to them.

I kept talking.

Do you believe in God?

Do you have any religious beliefs or any other belief

on which you could swear?

Do you swear to tell the truth, on your honor?

Were you able to attend school?

PUBLIC PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

Mr. Cata.

What was your relationship with Mr. Chocobar?

He's my maternal half-brother.

Where do you live?

In El Chorro, within the territory of the Chuschagasta Indigenous Community.

The quarry is at the center of the territory.

Who are you and why do you come here?

We are the Amín family, don't you know?

We are the Amín family.

You have no business here.

So you say, tell me who you are.

- We are a community. - An Indigenous community.

And we are asserting our rights, so...

OK. Relax, calm down.

If we talk, we might understand each other. Or maybe not.

So I say, let's talk, and we might understand each other.

If we don't talk, we might not.

You know there is a court order.

I don't mean to hurt you, but if I report what you're doing,

we will all get in trouble.

- It's OK. - What are we doing?

What is it that we are doing?

- What is it? - Man.

Stay cool, brother.

Don't you threaten me. I'm being polite.

Who do you think you are?