A court in Argentina suspended the eviction of the Lof Melo and Kinxikew indigenous communities on Wednesday, August 26, over 625 disputed hectares in El Pedregoso, Neuquén, citing the procedural failure to complete the eviction itself.
The suspension does not determine ownership of the land nor resolve the underlying territorial conflict, community lawyer Virgilio Sánchez clarified. Consequently, the judicial measure is now devoid of effect, and any future eviction attempt would require the reopening of an entirely new court proceeding, according to Sánchez.
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Sánchez further noted that the ruling orders the withdrawal of all parties involved in the aborted operation, including the Broers family, their legal representatives, the court officers, the Police, and the Gendarmerie forces that had entered the area.
In parallel, the lawyer is pushing for an alternative path outside the judicial arena, proposing an arbitration process under Neuquén’s new Procedural Code. He argued that this framework enables novel mechanisms specifically suited to long-standing disputes.
The lawyer characterized the court’s decision as a victory for the communities, emphasizing that rights hold no substance unless actively exercised. The ruling follows a week of heightened tensions, during which nearly 1,000 people mobilized in support of the two lofs.
La Lof Melo resiste al intento de desalojo que se está perpetuando en Villa La Angostura por parte de la GEOP de Neuquén, la Policía Federal y Gendarmería Nacional, y que ya expulsó de sus tierras a la Lof Kinxikew.
Ambas comunidades, ubicadas a la vera de la Ruta 40, han sido… pic.twitter.com/vFyeJ3igmR
— Adriana Cristina Serquis (@aserquis) August 21, 2026
The broader conflict centers on El Pedregoso, a sector near Villa La Angostura in the Los Lagos department. More than 130 individuals from the two communities reside there, asserting an ancestral occupation along the coast of Lake Nahuel Huapi. The territory combines economic activities with deep spiritual value, including sacred spaces, ancestral burial grounds, water basins, and periglacial areas currently threatened by real estate and extractive expansion.
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