Original article: Industria y gobierno coordinan ofensiva contra la Ley Lafkenche en foro patrocinado por salmoneras: Comunidad Kawésqar emite declaración ante afrenta «The Forum of Those Who Have Already Decided»: Kawésqar Community of Nomadic Families from the South Comments on Recent Salmon Event On April 29, 2026, The Singular Patagonia Hotel hosted the II AquaForum Patagonia Conference. Organized as a «public-private dialogue space,» its first panel was titled «Lafkenche Law: Complexities of a Procedure that Paralyzes. » The definition of the problem was predetermined before the discussion began: there are no tensions between development and territorial rights, but rather a law that obstructs.

The event was not a dialogue, but a coordination session. Industry representatives moderated the panel discussing the law that governs them, while the Undersecretary of Fisheries, Osvaldo Urrutia, labeled the law’s suspensive effect as «fatal» and announced legislative indications for its amendment between June and July. He described it as «inconceivable» for small communities to request 600,000 hectares, demanding «proportionality» and «common sense.

» However, as the Kawésqar Community of Nomadic Families from the Sea warns, the suspensive effect is the backbone of the Lafkenche Law. Eliminating it would effectively nullify the law without formally repealing it. Applying a square meters per person logic to a collective ancestral right of a nomadic people with over 7,000 years of history is not common sense; it’s imposing the logic of private property where it does not belong.

We invite you to read the full column to understand the architecture of this offensive and the response from those who inhabit the southern marine territory. To read the full opinion piece from the Kawésqar Community of Nomadic Families from the Sea, please visit the attached link. The Forum of Those Who Have Already Decided On April 29, 2026, The Singular Patagonia Hotel, located five kilometers from Puerto Natales, hosted the II AquaForum Patagonia Conference.

Approximately 200 people attended an event described by its organizers as «a strategic space for public-private dialogue and coordination. » However, the program suggested otherwise. Its first panel was titled «Lafkenche Law: Complexities of a Procedure that Paralyzes.

» There were no references to «tensions between development and territorial rights,» nor to «the future of the southern marine territory. » The Lafkenche Law was framed as a procedure that paralyzes, with the groundwork laid before a single word was spoken. This event was not a dialogue; it was a coordination session.

The list of sponsors underscores this: AquaChile as a strategic sponsor, Blumar, Cermaq, and SalmonChile as social sponsors, along with the Norwegian Embassy among institutional sponsors. It is also evident who moderated the panel on the Lafkenche Law: the general manager of the Magallanes Salmon Farmers Association. The industry moderated the discussion on the law that regulates it, while the entire first module was moderated by the same association under the title «Development and Conservation on the Same Path»: a phrase that suggests balance but, in that context, has a predetermined outcome.

The Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Osvaldo Urrutia, was the highest-ranking political speaker at the event, and his words are noteworthy. He characterized the suspensive effect of the Lafkenche Law—the mechanism that protects an ECMPO application while being processed—as «fatal. » He announced that the government would submit legislative indications between June and July to modify this aspect.

Additionally, he noted that small communities are requesting 600,000 hectares, which he deemed «inconceivable,» insisting that criteria must include «proportionality» and «common sense. » Each of these statements merits careful reading. The suspensive effect is not a design flaw in the law; it is its backbone.

Without it, while a community waits years in line at Conadi for their customary uses to be accredited, the industry could continue to accumulate concessions in the same territory. Removing the suspensive effect would effectively empty the law without formally repealing it. This is the type of «technical modification» that produces the same outcome as repeal but with less political cost.

Regarding «proportionality»: the Kawésqar are a nomadic people. Their historical territory is not defined by the number of registered members today, but by centuries of navigation, seasonal use, and accumulated knowledge of the channels, fjords, and coasts that their ancestors navigated from the Gulf of Penas to the Strait of Magellan. Applying a square meters per person logic to a collective ancestral right is not common sense; it imposes private property logic on something that predates and transcends it.

The «common sense» of the Undersecretary measures with an incorrect yardstick. It is revealing that even the editorial of La Prensa Austral on May 3, which generally accepts the productive premise of the debate, raised uncomfortable questions: whether the Regional Government currently possesses the technical and legal tools to manage a concession system of such complexity, and whether transferring competencies without strengthening capacities is simply discretion in another guise. These are the same questions the Kawésqar community has been asking for years about the bodies that decide about our marine territory.

What the AquaForum Patagonia 2026 clearly demonstrated is the architecture of a coordinated offensive: the industry identifies the «critical knots,» aligned lawyers and academics provide the legal framework, government authorities announce legislative indications, and regional media cover the event as if it were a neutral technical forum. State sponsorship lends institutional legitimacy, and the language of development provides moral cover. Meanwhile, the Lafkenche Law is positioned, once again, as the problem.

While this occurred in a hotel in Puerto Natales, our Kawésqar community continued to navigate the same marine territory that this forum labels as an obstacle. We do not need the industry to explain to us what the sea is. We have known it for over 7,000 years.

And we will continue to express this, with the same patience with which our ancestors sailed against the wind.