Brutal Sabotage of Indigenous Mapuche Earth Song by Chilean State Terrorism
*By Nina Dean - 16th May 2010
Lonko Juana Calfunao was this week refused parole for the second consecutive time by the Chilean judiciary. Chief Calfunao had been recommended for her current parole review due to good behaviour. She has remained in detention in a Temuco jail since 2006 as a result of spitting at a court official whilst on trial for her part in protesting against the illicit construction of a road running through the Juan Paillalef community, of which she is traditional ancestral leader.
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The parole review took place in Temuco and was attended by the anxious friends and family of the Lonko, whose hopes for their loved ones release had been naturally tenuously anticipated, following the many years that she has been unjustly separated from them. Photo: Nina Dean, at the Sept/2009 UN Human Rights Council |
Whilst from her home in exile in Switzerland the Chiefs youngest child Relmutray Cadin Calfunao also awaited news of her mothers’ imminent release.
As a result of the decision to deny the liberation of Chief Calfuano, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a program set by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Human Rights Federation (FIDH), have requested urgent intervention in the her case. They again express their serious concern for the physical and psychological safety and integrity of Juana and the insecurity faced by defenders of the rights of the Mapuche community in Chile. They state that they are also subject to death threats and acts of harassment and intimidation to pressure them to abandon their struggle for the community, are criminalized by judicial proceedings in order to punish their activity and to discredit their actions before the eyes of the population and are subjected to abuse and psychological torture.
On the announcement of the shocking decision to retain Chief Calfunao for an extended and indefinate period, the courtroom erupted into an aggrieved uproar from family, friends and supporters. Following a later peaceful democratic protest highlighting the unjust detention, Waikilaf Calfunao son of Chief Calfunao and a further 17 Mapuche participants were arrested and detained for allegedly throwing stones at military vehicles and sentenced to 14 months in prison. They were subsequently released on probation and placed under house arrest; however Wakilafs home was later raided by police when it was alleged that evidence of explosive components and arms were found in his bedroom, he was subsequently arrested and charged with illegal possession of these items. Waikilaf was detained at Angol prison making a brief detour to visit his mother Chief Calfunao at Temuco women’s penitentiary in order to say goodbye. Paradoxically the Chilean authorities made the unusual decision to release Waikilaf only 24 hours after his detention. Such a decision implies the frail and unsubstantiated proof upon which the authorities had originally detained the chiefs son. Firstly the Calfunao family are not engaged in any type of destructive or harmful activities. Further the likelihood of the Calfunao family harbouring such items could only be construed as an act of insane and total self sabotage given that they are wholly conscious of being monitored by Chilean police 24 hours a day. Therefore it is clear that the Chilean police had planted the incriminating items within the Calfunao family home as a means of continued harassment with which to detain Waikilaf.
Waikilaf Cadin Calfunao has been systematically detained on false charges throughout his life as a means of undermining his and his families will to continue to fight for their legitimate rights to the Mapuche ancestral land upon which they and their community have traditionally lived.
In a statement released by the Calfunao/Cadin family they express their grave concerns, stating that, ‘’The consequences of the inability to resolve land disputes by the political powers of government upon our community can be viewed as a stark reality in the case of our family. In particular the denial of freedom our Lonko Juana Calfunao and the arrest of Waikilaf and others protesters these actions are a clear confirmation of the Indian management policy of this genocidal government, the families of our community are completely destroyed by this state, including that of our daughter Relmutray living in Asylum in Switzerland for over a year and a half. We live in hope that on this occasion international bodies will act on the understanding that they were created to protect those whose life is in danger, and understand that the psychological and physical situation of Mapuche in our country is grave.’’
Waikilaf states ‘’I call upon all international bodies to act now and not when they have me killed by the police.’’ ‘’Our community's fight continues because it is legitimate. We urge all Mapuche and non Mapuche brothers not to be intimidated or frightened by acts of the corrupt police and prosecutors who persecute Mapuche. We ask for the release of all Mapuche political prisoners’’.
Chief Calfunao and her family who traditionally hold the role of hereditary Chiefs in the Juan Pailalef community in Cunco, Temuco, Chile, have consistently been the target of Chilean authorities aggression and intimidation for many generations. Whilst the intention of the Chilean state, has been to eradicate Mapuche opposition to national and multinational exploitation of Mapuche territory including that of the Juan Pailalef community. As a result Chief Calfuano has had her home raised to the ground on 3 occassions, whilst on one such occasion her uncle was killed in the blaze on another her youngest child Relmutray narrowly escaped the arson attack with her life.
Relmutray Cadin Calfunao, was finally removed from the family home in Chile to seek sanctuary in Switzerland under the care of her Aunt Rayen, sister of Lonko Calfunao and her daughter Andrea Marifil. Relmutray whose mother and Aunt Luisa are held in detention whilst her two older brothers and her father have been intermittently detained throughout her life, has only been able to communicate with her parents via live video link to their respective prisons. She maintains telephone contact with her brothers and sister in Chile during the periods that they are not in detention.
The Calfunao family like countless Mapuche families have in this way been separated and denied by the Chilean Government, the universal right to live as is their birthright, a normal family life. These are quite clearly not the actions of a post dictatorship democracy but those of an unconscionable regime intent on ruthlessly fulfilling its selfish agenda by any means necessary. Under a regime such as this the universal value for human rights enshrined in international conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO Convention 169, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples are ignored. Value and respect for life does not appear to register in the minds of Chilean government officials and the policies that they implement which represent an unprovoked violent and pre meditated assault upon the Mapuche people regardless of their vulnerability, as in the case of women, children and elderly victims, nor the suffering of the Calfunao/Cadin family.
The incidence of victimisation of Mapuche children under state military violence has been the cause of increasing concern to Mapuche communities and international human rights organisations worldwide. A recent report by ‘Community Assessment and Intervention, Mapuche Health Program Service 2004’, cites multiple cases of violence against Mapuche minors between 2001 to 2009 references over 126 recorded cases during this period. These children have suffered intense violence and intimidation during police raids on their communities in search of evidence of ‘Mapuche terrorist activities’ and in the search for the community members and leaders who are alleged to have instigated them. Many more Mapuche children have been traumatized and wounded by rubber bullets, beaten and interrogated in police custody or during raids on their schools and homes. Many of these attacks have taken place during the so called investigation of terrorist crimes within Mapuche community family homes where children have not only been forced to observe violence and intimidation against their parents but also have become the subjects of brutality and interrogation themselves. The most recent case of Mapuche child repression has been the arrest and detention of 3 Mapuche minors under the age of 16, who are currently detained under anti terrorist law in Chilean State prison Patricio Queipul from the Temucuicui community.
As the situation of repression against the Mapuche Nation has intensified with the introduction of the application of anti terrorist law, first introduced under the Pinochet dictatorship, solely against peaceful democratic protesters, Mapuche communities and their leaders, the rate of intimidation and incarceration has significantly increased.
There are currently 48 Mapuche political prisoners detained in Chilean state prisons 37 of whom were sentenced using anti terrorist law. Presently of the ‘Angol five’ (Mapuche political prisoners), Eduardo Moreno previously committed to dry hunger strike as a result of the continuous ill treatment and brutality which he had received at the hands of his captors for the period of his arbitrary detention.
There have been a number of young Mapuche men for whom police violence finally resulted in death. The latest victim to be killed by armed military police was Jaime Mendoza Collio who was shot in the back whilst fleeing from police during a land rights occupation in August 2009. Jaime is the sixth young Mapuche man in as many years to be killed by state military police. In 2008 police murdered 23-year-old Matías Catrileo and Johnny Cariqueo, aged 23; In 2007 they murdered Rodrigo Cisternas; In 2006 Juan Collihuín Catril, aged 71, and in 2003 Alex Lemun, aged 17, was also murdered. In 2005 16 year old, José Huenante disappeared without trace whilst held in detention by Chilean police. The recent killing had sparked numerous riots and demonstrations throughout Chile.
Though repression under previous governments has been violent, systematic and marked by institutional racism, with the election of a new right wing government following the Chilean general election in January 2010, the future for the Mapuche is predicted to even bleaker. A cold hard winter lies ahead for the Mapuche people, eluded to by the right wing presidential candite Sebastián Piñera immediately prior to his election when he pledged to apply the anti terrorist law to all Mapuche who commit to direct action. The Mapuche have therefore braced themselves for a renewed assault upon their ancestral lands and subsequent human rights.
The Mapuche reaction to the repression has resulted in the development of non-governmental support organisations providing moral support, exposure to the national and international media and to human rights organisations as well as to the vital legal support necessary to combat the ceaseless judicial persecution they endure. One such organisation the Autonomous Socio-Legal Mapuche Counsel was recently created in order to provide legal support to Mapuche political prisoners and those suffering injustices as a result of police and judicial processes.
A return to Mapuche autonomy and self determination would represent not only a victory for the Mapuche but for Chile, Argentina, South America and the world; for environment, health, spiritual clarity, for democracy and inclusion, value of diversity, tolerance, freedom, sustainability, mutual respect and for hope for the Mapuche and for mankind. The world has witnessed the destruction of natural indigenous habitats, the attempted genocide of indigenous nations such as that of the Mapuche, North American Native Indians, Inuit, and countless others across the globe, yet it seems that it remains unenlightened to the fact that the post imperialist era continues to ravage what remains of these peoples, in what may be labelled phase two of the indigenous conflict, the scramble for the last remaining resources of the Earth. For the indigenous peoples and families such as the Calfunao's total annihilation is close unless the world awakens to action in order to save the Mapuche and other indigenous nations from the ruthless governments who seek to destroy them.
In eradicating these peoples, their rich culture, history, spirituality and way of life the West will burn the last remaining bridge which leads the way back home
*Vice secretary
Mapuche International Link