Rosa Grilo, last Indigenous survivor of Napalpi massacre, dies in Argentina

Rosa Grilo, 115, the last Indigenous survivor of the Napalpi massacre in Argentina has died in northern Chaco province, the Ministry of Culture announced.

The ministry on Wednesday expressed "its deep sorrow for the death of Rosa Grilo, the last survivor of the Napalpi massacre in which more than 400 members of the Qom and Moqoit communities were murdered."

Authorities said Grilo's death was announced on Wednesday but it had taken place on Tuesday and had been confirmed by her relatives who reside in a rural area of northern Chaco province.

Grilo is known for her testimony that was key during a landmark "truth trial" in April 2022 that established the Argentina state's role in the massacre, "crimes against humanity" and a process of "genocide against Indigenous peoples."

"I was a girl, but not that little, that's why I remember," Grilo told authorities in 2018 as part of her testimony. "It's very sad for me because they killed my dad and I almost don't want to remember it, because it makes my heart ache."

She said an airplane tossed down bags of sweets and those from the Indigenous community that went after the bags were killed.

"I don't know why they killed so many children and adults, there was a lot of suffering," said Grilo.

"My grandfather was called Francisco Grilo and my mother Antonia Grilo. They never talked about what happened, it's only now being talked about".

Grilo's testimony relates to events on July 19 1924 when more than 100 police officers and settlers bearing arms descended on protesting Indigenous Qom and Moqoit people who had been denouncing inhumane living and working conditions on Chaco province's cotton fields.

In 1882, fertile lands where the communities lived were sold to European settlers who used them for agriculture as Chaco became Argentina's national cotton producer.

In 1924, provincial authorities ordered the Indigenous community to hand over 15 percent of the production. 

With the community facing the "conditions of semi-slavery," Qom and Moqoit communities went on strikes in July 1924, demanding better working conditions.

In response police officers and civilians under the command of Governor Centeno "fired rifles" at those striking, killing them. Those who escaped were reportedly persecuted and harrassed in the aftermath of the massacre. 

'War trophies'

Napalpi was among four Indigenous zones where the state authorities massacred between 300-500 Indigenous people and buried them in mass graves. Some victims' body parts were taken as "war trophies."

About a million of Argentina's 45 million inhabitants today are members or descendants of the original 39 Indigenous groups, according to census data. Historians say the settlement of Argentina by immigrants pushed its Indigenous peoples on the verge of extermination.

The Ministry of Culture said that Argentina began to investigate crimes against humanity in 2014, opening a so-called "truth trial" while all the alleged culprits had already died.

The trials did not have a criminal prosecution but underscored the country's commitment to the international community "to investigate and prosecute all serious violations of human rights".

During the trial, Argentina said, the crimes of aggravated homicide and reduction to servitude of between 400 and 500 members of the Qom and Moqoit communities were proven and reparations were ordered by a judge — from educating the army about Indigenous rights, creating a museum to preserve the memory in Napalpi, teaching the massacre on the national curriculum and reuniting the remains used for the investigation to their families.

Grilo's testimony was instrumental in the legal case which took place almost a century later and proved genocide had taken place with Grilo's father and several relatives among those murdered in the carnage.