Gulumapu (Chile) Mapuche leader seeks political asylum in Argentina

Mapuche political letter supporting the case of Pascual Pichún Collonao

6th December 2005

To the Mapuche Nation, the Argentine and Chilean societies and the international public:

Brother PASCUAL ALEJANDRO PICHÚN COLLONAO, 23 years old, member of the Mapuche Nation and belonging to the Temulemu community, Traiguén, in the South of the current State of Chile, has drawn up a formal application for political asylum before the Argentine state authorities, as the subject of an arrest warrant by the Chilean courts.

Besides being a prominent member of the Mapuche social movement, founder of the group of traditional "Kimkache" music and active promoter of his people's cultural and political rights, our brother Pascual belongs to a symbolic community that for the last few years has maintained a fierce opposition to the advance of logging companies on their ancestral land, which has resulted in the judicial persecution of the community's leaders and members by the Chilean authorities. This persecution has been denounced in reports by prominent international organisations like Human Rights Watch, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH), Amnesty International, and individuals like the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues, Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen.

In recent years the Pichún family has been the victim of relentless political and judicial persecution, two of whose members find themselves imprisoned today: Pascual Pichún Collonao Sr., lonko (traditional chief) of the community, and Rafaél Pichún Collonao; father and brother repectively, of Pascual Pichún Collonao Jr.. It must be noted that a further nine Mapuche citizens are serving severe sentences in prisons in the South of Chile, all imprisoned under Law 18.314 on Terrorist Conduct, created by the Pinochet military dictatorship to persecute political objectors. Alongside them are hundreds more Mapuche citizens accused by the Chilean civil and military courts over the last 5 years, who find themselves under varying degrees of "conditional" or "monitored" freedom.

In his report on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Chilean indigenous peoples, the Special Rapporteur Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen recommended to the Chilean state in December 2003 that "under no circumstances" should the "legitimate actions of social protest or demands of the indigenous organisations or communities" be criminalised or penalised, and that accusations of crimes committed in other contexts (those of a "terrorist threat" or "suspicious association") should not be applied "to facts related to the social fight for land and legitimate indigenous claims." However the criminalisation of the Mapuche Nation's legitimate social, political and cultural demands continues undaunted.

In various rural zones of the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth communities, state militarisation of the original communities as well as violent police raids both persist. It is in this situation in which the Pichún family and their community have had to live for three years. Effectively living in a police enclosure, they are subject to helicopter patrols, permanent police presence and zone monitoring, ID checks on public walkways, night raids on the homes of community members, and even arbitrary and extrajudicial arrests.

All the aforementioned facts are the reasons why we, a group of Mapuche students and militants from Puelmapu, Argentina, have allied ourselves with request of the Pichún Collonao family and as a result have formed the Commission for the Political Asylum in Argentina of the Mapuche Brother Pascual Pichún Collonao. We understand that his request is a right which fills each and every one of the conditions required by the United Nations Statute on Refugees, under the terms of the 1951 Convention on the Statute for Asylum Seekers. This is about a person persecuted because of his status as a member of the Mapuche Nation, victimised on ethnic grounds, as a fighter for social justice, in other words political persecution disguised as fighting terrorism. We hold a well-founded fear that if our brother was extradited, his freedom and rights would be in serious danger of being violated, yet another reason for the urgent need for solidarity which our Commission is calling for.

Anything that affects the Mapuche in any one part of our Ancient Land, as a united people living on both sides of the Andes, affects every one of its children. In Puelmapu the Argentine State has at its disposal a selection of nationally comprehensive legal apparatus modelled on international examples. In its own political constitution it has recognised the preexistence of the indigenous peoples. For this reason, as members of the Mapuche Nation of Puelmapu, we cite that preexistence in calling emphatically for the political and legal protection by the corresponding authorities of the Argentine Government and Justice, of our Brother Pascual Pichún Collonao.

For this reason, too, we call for internal solidarity from all the Mapuche people, not just in the name of human rights but all society: students, workers and other organised groups from Argentine, Chilean and international societies alike. We need to join forces so as to obtain political asylum for our brother in this land, which is his just as much his as ours, so that we may all live according to justice and peace alongside our people to the East of the Andes.

Signed:

The Commision for the Political Asylum in Argentina of the Mapuche Brother Pascual Pichún Collonao

E-mail: libertad_pascualpichun@yahoo.com.ar
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Translated by Hugh Mouser
Mapuche International Link