LAKE ESCONDIDO A REFLECTION OF THE IMPUNITY OF THE BRITISH TYCOON
Lake Escondido is located in the El Foyel area, between Bariloche and El Bolsón, a name that recalls an important Tehuelche chief in the area. Arriving at the El Foyel area from route 40, we find ourselves where the Tacuifí road begins, which in Mapuche is a greeting that means “so long” , which took that name because it was passed through these towns before a family with the last name Montero occupied it.
To get to Lago Escondido you have to travel 19 km along the Tacuifí road, which crosses two rivers and a forest with ancient larch trees that make up one of the most beautiful and imposing landscapes in Argentine Patagonia.
The Tacuifí road that leads to the lake already appeared on military maps in 1960, and crossed public lands at that time.
The occupation of the land occurred at the end of the 60s by Arsoindo Montero, María Ortiz and their children, a family that was dedicated to raising cows and sheep that arrived from Chile to the eastern coast of the Lake. Years later They achieved ownership of the land through the usucapion procedure, taking over a property of 8,000 hectares.
From there, they took power, occupying those lands, arbitrarily closing and preventing entry to the Escondido Lake that was within those lands; a practice that happens when usurpers who have not paid for the lands they have occupied believe they are owners of all the natural resources, believing themselves unpunished and alien to the laws that govern a country, forming a fiefdom with illegal powers within a sovereign Nation.
According to the Civil Code of the Argentine Republic (art 2340), rivers and lakes are public domain. While the Constitution of the Province of Río Negro (art 73)1 ensures free access for recreational purposes to the banks of public domain water bodies.
During the time when the surrounding lands were owned by Montero, the latter was not fulfilled: so access to the eastern shore of the lake was not allowed. In the mid-1990s María Ortiz and one of the children died, Therefore, in 1996, Montero decided to sell. 20 years after occupying the private negotiations, those things that happen in Argentina beyond all logic, the law of the strongest or the most macho, begin.A sovereign country would directly recover what it has given away, canceling the use of land for the benefits obtained from the illegitimate sale with which they have profited, achieving a significant sum of money, and would prolong the National Park, but for that it is necessary politicians and officials who really think about the construction of a sovereign Argentine Nation.
If they act outside the Law, they do not deserve to be worthy occupiers of those lands that the Argentine Nation and the Province of Rio Negro have given them, which to make matters worse they already had those lands occupied by the Tehuelche and Mapuche Peoples who were expelled by gunfire. those areas, by those neo-occupants, a practice that is still used with impunity by Joe Lewis's Far West-style henchmen, as detailed in this article.
The historian Alejandro Olmos Gaona details very well what was stated above about how the purchase/sale was carried out fraudulently, in which both sellers and the buyer were involved. That is why today, the Montero family who keep the first ones under their power lands that the Tacuifí road crosses, in collusion with Joe Lewis, do not want or allow anyone to access that road, exercising illegal power using the violence, attacks, and ignoring court orders including the ruling of the Superior Court of Rio Negro, taking advantage of the political and judicial weakness of that Province in being able to enforce the rulings issued. https://fallos.jusrionegro.gov.ar/protocoloweb/protocolo/protocolo?id_protocolo=760b8e15-4a69-4841-a7b3-31c1fe7eb2ac&stj=1
That is where the suspicion of high bribes to officials arises. In this network two other real estate figures from the area appear, Federico Pío Van Ditmar, with Van Ditmar Patagonia y Asociados SRL and Nicolás Van Ditmar (known as Thug Winchester), the latter mediates the efforts so that Joe Lewis, English businessman founder of Tavistock, meet the Foyel area and Lake Escondido. It is worth clarifying the accusation against officials of the Government of Rio Negro and individuals for selling public lands at $90 per hectare, publishing the news, suspected of acting as a true illicit association to defraud the state.
https://www.rionegro.com.ar/tierras-fiscales-el-turno-de-federico-van-ditmar-EPRN_1359291/ .
Another character who appears in the media is former president Mauricio Macri, who referred to Joe Lewis as his friend, and who appointed Dalia Pinacho as director of Radio Nacional Neuquén; spokesperson for Joe Lewis.We do not know for sure if this will be the case, but the appointment is striking knowing that a practice used by foreign interests is to be able to control the media since they are essential to deceive the local residents and the Argentine People, and thus be able to operate. with impunity in the shadows.
And despite court rulings and evidence of fraudulent purchases by Joe Lewis, former President Macri declared https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg4uSljD4k4&t=16s
We also have to remember that in the Cambiemos Government, the agreement was made disguised as a Foradori-Duncan statement where strategic resources were delivered to the United Kingdom https://www.pagina12.com.ar/417958-malvinas-que-decia-el- agreement-foradori-duncan-the-pact-signature
In short, after the looting suffered by the native peoples of the area, another of the darkest chapters of the Province of Rio Negro continues in matters of purchase/sale, through fraudulent maneuvers of the lands bordering the border areas.
Lewis founded the firm Hidden Lake SA (Lago Escondido, in English) and Van Ditmar became his partner and administrator.Hidden Lake carries out a large number of constructions on the eastern coast of the Lake, including a large Mansion, definitively preventing any Argentinian or foreign tourist from freely entering Lake Escondido through the public road of Tacuifí.
T he FIPCA foundation (Foundation to Promote the Culture of Water) began organizing the march for Sovereignty and Entry to the lake along the tacuífí road in 2015, seeing that since 2005 The legislator Magdalena Odarda was fighting in court defending the rights of the People of Rio Negro to have free access to Lago Escondido through the Tacuifí public road that had been blocked, and that the sentence of the Superior Court of Justice of Rio Negro of the year 2009.
Residents of Bolsón, Bariloche and Esquel joined these marches organized by FIPCA, who, as they gained greater public status, were joined by other political forces, social and union organizations interested in the issues of sovereignty and constitutional rights, rights that seem to be forgotten by the Government of Rio Negro.
The reader must know that, as background, the Tacuifí road already appeared as public on the military maps of the 60s, demonstrating the pre-existence of that road, where there were even two material bridges over rivers that supposedly, starting in 1996, date that the Hidden Lake signature was installed, someone removed it to make access to the Lake difficult.
The investigations of Historian Alejandro Olmos Gaona expose us to the background, remembering verbatim… “on June 19, 1996, Dr. Lisandro Allende, in his capacity as President of HRProperties Buenos Aires SA, requestedauthorization for the acquisition of land from the National Commission of Security Zones." In record time, on July 2, " such request obtained a favorable opinion from the Deputy Director and the Director of the Settlement Projects Unit, because the petitioner It was an Argentine legal entity, with an Argentine President, and was finally authorized by the President of the National Commission of Security Zones . But the trap was that although the land request had been led by an "Argentine" company, one month previously on May 5 "...Properties Buenos Aires SA had become Hidden Lake SA "whose 11,999 shares were held by a British company called Lago Corp. Represented by Alfredo Rovira and Charles Barrington Lewis with one share, who is an English citizen", and son of Joe.”
“Continuing with "the illegal maneuver", in the month of September, Charles Barrington Lewis, Joe's son, appeared on behalf of the interests of Hidden Lake SA, requesting two additional authorizations before the Safety Zones Commission, through an abbreviated procedure. for the approval of the purchase of 2,760 more hectares in the same border security zone”…
“On December 13, the purchase was authorized, even though the company had changed its share capital and it was different from those declared at the time of requesting the first authorization for the purchase of the land”; the historian refers in an article that can be read at:
Can the reader understand the magnitude of this scam against the Argentine Nation?
VIOLENT BACKGROUND TO THE UNFAVORABLE RULING FOR LEWIS BY THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
In Argentina there are still violent mafia factions that do not adapt to living in democracy and this seems to be the case of the administrator of Hidden Lake, Nicolas Van Ditmar. On March 28, 2011, Nicolás Van Ditmar, the real estate businessman who manages the Estancia de Lewis, He organized a VIP mobilization carrying horses, people dressed as gauchos installing chemical toilets in Viedma, where he issued death threats, shouting to resist and if necessary, like the old settlers with the Winchester, they will not enter again.
Defending alleged private property acquired fraudulently.
https://www.pagina12.com.ar/400481-lago-escondido-un-administrador-de-winchester-en-la-cintura
RIO NEGRO EL NEO FAR WEST ARGENTINO FULFILLING THE THREATS
As a criminal record there are the ancestors of one of the violent owners of the last name Puchy. This is how an article in the Rio Negro newspaper describes it. … “Atanasio Puchy and his brother Eduardo were part of the Foster Rojas gang, whose cruelty earned him the title of “The Jackal of La Lipela” because in 1928 they spread cruelty to the Creide family” …. “Eduardo was with Atanasio, stealing. They came from Chile. And on one of those trips, well, he got Emma, who was 12 years old, pregnant. Emma's old people, these gringos, Germans, what do I know, threatened Eduardo with death. So he came to Foyel and he just stayed there.“This Eduardo was lazy,” his granddaughter Zulema Zúñiga said years later.
“Puchy's offspring are now the jealous custodians of Lewis's resistance to blazing the long and winding path that, as things stand, will never reach Lake Escondido.” Lest the Argentine justice system ever act with dignity and restore the constitutional rights of criminals and teach that Argentina is not the Far West, as they want to convert to the area of El Foyel; under threats and violence. Where brute force and arrogance prevail over rights, we are traveling a very finite path that can lead us to become an anarchic country where each one will use force to prevail over others, leaving our National Constitution reduced to a simple old-fashioned reading book without any hierarchical value.
Since when justice wants to act, they begin to exercise the anarchic and violent power of the Far West and, as in the time of the Puchy brothers, the threats are carried out, the first occurs against Judge Erika Fontela who authorized the entry of FIPCA and residents of Bolsón to Lago Escondido along the Tacuifí road
https://www.pagina12.com.ar/111670-para-el-amigo-de-macri-no-hay-jueza-que-valga
The first is carried out by hitmen employed by Hidden Lake by capsizing in the cold waters of Lake Escondido, two kayaks with two people on board who were sailing taking images of that mirror of water, having entered it legally for a mountain trail and They almost died of hypothermia see: https://www.lacapital.com.ar/informacion-gral/trabajos-lewis-atacan-tres-participantes-la-marcha-al-lago-escondido-n1735642.html
The second, before a demonstration of neighbors and their families accompanied by social organizations asking for compliance with a ruling that authorized people to travel along the Tacuifí road to enter the lake where people equipped with horses, weapons and rubble began a fierce throwing of stones against the people and lawyers who peacefully requested compliance with a judicial order from the Supreme Court of Justice see https://www.tiempofueguino.com/marcha-por-la-soberania-pobladores-que-responden-a-joe-lewis-atacaron-a-los-manifestantes-en-lago-escondido/
The third and most serious attack revealed the actions of an armed gang that moves through provincial territory, intimidating to death backpackers and walkers who circulate on a mountain path that leads to Lago Escondido, recalling the actions of the Puchy brothers with total impunity.But this gang makes a very big mistake that exposes them when they intercept the FIPCA mountain column, with residents of Bolsón, journalists, and other social organizations and above all accompanied by lawyers who were traveling along that Public road to reach to Lago Escondido. The attack – I reiterate – occurs in provincial territory on a public road, in the style of Far West or asphalt pirates; As Van Ditmar had anticipated using Winchester, if neither justice nor the Provincial Government can put a constitutional order on the natural resources so that they are protected in the Province of Rio Negro, there are very great risks of new seizures of the national and provincial territory by the use of force.
See:
https://www.pagina12.com.ar/400507-lago-escondido-hubo-escopetazos-toda-la-noche-para-amedrenta
RIO NEGRO NEW FEUDO OF JOE LEWIS or BRITISH?
Seeing the impunity of these actions, the power they hold over the Government of the Province of Rio Negro, observing how Mauricio Macri referred to his friend Joe, in reference to Joe Lewis.
https://www.pagina12.com.ar/401911-macri-esta-en-la-estancia-de-joe-lewis-con-un-trabajorio-de
Intervention of the IGJ General Inspection of Justice of the Nation
Given so many irregularities and illegitimate and illegal acts reported, committed for the acquisition of part of Joe Lewis from the Montero family, this year There was a request to the court to carry out the General Inspection of Justice, which is the control body of commercial companies in Argentina, requesting judicial intervention of the Hidden Lake company for various crimes starting from of non-compliance with sentences firm judicial rulings from the Superior Court of Río Negro and national courts, some of which date back to 2005, since in constitutional countries, companies must comply with judicial resolutions. In this case, the ruling orders free movement to the Lake Hidden along the road to Tacuifí, leaving at Discover that Hidden Lake is a simulated company, which has no activity, and through Bahamas offshore companies, tycoon Joe Lewis tried hide that he is the sole owner of the 12 thousand hectares in Patagonia where Lake Escondido is located in the Province of Rio Negro. The IGJ asks the commercial justice of CABA because Hidden Lake has its address in a law firm on Avenida of the Liberator, initially, ordering the intervention of the company. The request is attached with the background to the writings of the IGJ
https://www.argentina.gob.ar/sites/default/files/resolucion_particular_393-2022.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavistock_Group
https://www.pagina12.com.ar/420037-lago-escondido-la-igj-va-contra-una-sociedad-ficticia-de-joe
https://www.pagina12.com.ar/416012-lago-escondido-la-igj-pide-la-liquidacion-de-hidden-lake-la-
FAVORABLE RULING FOR ACCESS TO THE LAKE THIS MONTH OF SEPTEMBER 2022
After analyzing the file in detail, the judges of the Court of Appeals for Civil, Commercial, Family, Mining and Administrative Litigation of Bariloche, during this month of September, ratified the 2013 ruling ordering the opening of the easement road for Access to Lake Escondido through the Tacuifí area, bordering National Route 40.
HOW WILL THE PROVINCE OF RIO NEGRO ACT FACING A RULING IN FAVOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW?
From the celebration of the favorable ruling, we quickly moved to a state of consternation at the response of the Province of Rio Negro, in response to the action of appealing the judicial resolution favorable to entering Lake Escondido through the Tacufí public road.
Faced with the judicial record, the threats made and put into practice due to the multiple attacks perpetrated on citizens on public lands by armed gangs, begin to emerge several questions, the first is what interests they associate the officials and Governor Arabela Carreras with the British Tycoon Joe Lewis so that, contrary to all logic and the precedents before written, they have to appeal a ruling in favor of being able to access the enjoyment of a beautiful Lake for the Population of Rio Negro and Argentina?; the second question It is, for those who govern? And as a third question, for what interests do Mauricio Macri, the PRO and Cambiemos play politically in favor, having politically supported Joe Lewis?
Is it true that they will appeal the ruling favorable to the Nation, the Argentine People and the residents of Rio Negro as it has been announced in the media?
*Alejandra Victoria Portatadino, Mechanical Engineer, member of ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), CAI (Argentine Center of Engineers) Co-Founder of Engineering without Borders Argentina, member of FIPCA (Interactive Foundation to Promote the Culture of Water) and Grupo Bolívar, Honorary guest professor in Post Graduate UTN (National Technological University), of Buenos Aires and Province of Santa Fe.
