Mapuche Cosmic Vision and the Road to Redemption for Mapuche Werken, Victor Ancalaf
By Nina Dean* – 28th September 2009
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For Mapuche Werken (community special envoy) Victor Ancalaf Llaupe, former Mapuche political prisoner, it has been a long, traumatic and arduous path to freedom, since his unjust detention in 2002 under Chilean State anti terrorist law, which sentenced him to ten years and one day, later reducing the sentence in the court of appeal to five years and one day. His detention came as a result of false allegations made against him for a crime he did not commit, submitted in court by anonymous witnesses for so called ‘terrorist crimes’ related to the reclamation of Mapuche ancestral territory. ___________________________________________ |
The witness testimony of Victor Ancalaf, presented in the presence of the Chilean Ambassador Mr Carlos Portales at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tues 22nd Sept of this year. It represented the long awaited moment where Mr Ancalaf was finally able to communicate his experience of the brutal repression he had received at the hands of the Chilean State to the international community and to simultaneously publicly confront the perpetrators of his abuse.
Characteristically the Chilean State made no direct reference to the testimony given by Mr Ancalaf Llaupe, clearly preferring to avoid the public shame with which they were confronted in this international forum.
Mr Ancalaf’s condemnation of the government’s breech of undue process and its subsequent tragic miscarriage of justice were later echoed by Danielle Mitterrand, wife of former French President Francois Mitterrand and President of the French human rights organisation The Mitterrand Foundation, France Liberte. Mrs Mitterrand vehemently condemned the Chilean State for its very cruel and unjust application of anti terrorist law against democratic Mapuche protesters and the criminalization of their right to free expression. She informed the Human rights Council that during her recent visit to Chile she herself had witnessed the brutal and systematic repression levied against the Mapuche people in their rightful quest for the return of their ancestral lands.
Mr Ancalaf unwittingly sacrificed a great deal on the journey imposed upon him by the Chilean State as a result of his direct experience of the stereotypical miscarriage of justice applied to mapuche communities and their leaders. He has since devoted his life as an elected spokesman (Werken) for his community in order to seek justice for the civil, political and democratic rights and self determination of his people.
It is with great lament that Mr Ancalaf’s personal ordeal did not end with his release from detention in 2007. Following a recent public announcement on Chilean Radio by a Right wing extremist paramilitary group affiliated to local Chilean landowners declaring their intention to assassinate a number of Mapuche leader including Mr Ancalaf with immediate effect. Mr Ancalaf must now live the remainder of his life under the constant shadow of this intimidation. Further during the period of his recent tour of Europe to including his participation in the United Nations Human Rights Council, his family including young infants were visited in their home by anonymous intruders who issued further death threats to his young children in his absence. This is in contrast to the protections enjoyed by Chilean landowners who when under threat of attack enjoy the full protection the Chilean police service including a round the clock residential police guard.
Whilst Mr Ancalaf is forced to endure a life of constant fear and intimidation, the Chilean government, far from supporting the protection and security of the Ancalaf family, have consistently monitored his daily movements for the purposes of national intelligence since his release from detention.
For Werken Ancalaf the peaceful and ordinary life of a rural Mapuche family man became a distant dream as he was unwittingly propelled into the uncertain reality of both national and international politics, randomly chosen as a pawn in the long game of the Chilean State intent on winning the land and resources they so desperately and mercilessly pursue, using any means necessary in order to achieve them. For Mr Ancalaf, his family and the Mapuche Nation it is a game they can ill afford to lose as in doing so they lose their very existence and for Victor Ancalaf perhaps ultimately his life and liberty.
(*) Vice Secretary, Mapuche International Link