The Mapuches want justice and they want it now!

Press Release

Bristol, February 25, 2001

A Mapuche Delegation will be meeting the Chilean Ambassador to the United Kingdom tomorrow, February 26.

The Mapuche Delegation will be headed by Reynaldo Mariqueo from Mapuche International Link (MIL) based in England, and Marcelo Calfuquir from the Indigenous National Commission of Chile, as well as representatives from various Human Rights and indigenous peoples' support organisations.

The Delegation will give the Chilean Ambassador a letter to be handed to the President of Chile, Ricardo Lagos.

The letter addressed to the President of Chile expresses the grave concern of the Mapuche about the critical situation developing in their territory. This is a direct consequence of the judicial system's failure to render justice and restore to the Mapuche Nation land seized by forestry enterprises and large estate owners. "The mobilisations will not be stopped by mere welfare promises, by professions of good will or vain negotiations with spokesmen of the National Indigenous Board, who have no effective power. The Mapuches want justice and they want it now!" says part of the missive.

The Chilean state is responsible for the degrading state of poverty in the majority of Mapuche communities. According to official statistics, the life expectancy for the Mapuche is 20 years less than for the Chilean majority, the illiteracy in rural sectors reaches 20% and infant mortality rates are three times higher than the national average. This predicament is directly linked with the seizure of our land and resources and the failure of the Chilean state to acknowledge it.

The sense of betrayal of the Mapuche Nation arising from this manifest injustice, and the loss of faith in the Chilean authorities and the legitimacy of a racist and unfair judicial system, are profound. They are being impelled to increase mobilisations and to use all nonviolent methods at their disposal to defend their territorial rights and the environment.

The territorial conflict began more than a century ago, when the Chilean Republic, against the norms of international law and its own constitution, invaded by force of arms the then independent Mapuche Nation, as recognised by Spain from 6th January 1641, in the treaty of Killin.

The effective policy of the current Chilean Government is to criminalise the whole Mapuche movement, particularly the leaders and lonkos (traditional authorities) who demand justice and freedom, and fight for their rights as a people and for the recovery of their territories: the State Internal Security Law is applied against them, they are repressed by violence and hundreds have been detained, while others have had arrest warrants issued against them. There is severe police control south of the River Bio-Bio, a territory that has been transformed into a testing-ground for the Chilean espionage services; there is surveillance of the leaders, they are photographed and filmed, and their telephones tapped. Many communities live under what is effectively a state of permanent siege, with many Mapuche prevented from moving freely over the territory of their ancestors, in blatant violation of their elementary human rights.

Despite the denunciations of torture and abuses of police power, to date no one has been investigated or brought to justice; without public accountability, the police act with impunity, under a cloak of institutional racism. The need for the creation in the Wall mapu (Mapuche territory) of a new police institution that genuinely represents both communities, Mapuche and Winka (non-Mapuche), is increasingly evident, as it is the only way for the police to be seen as legitimate by the Mapuche, and not a mere instrument of racist oppression in the service of the forestry companies.

Today, the Mapuche people demands:

The immediate and unconditional freeing of all Mapuche political prisoners; a halt to the application of the State Internal Security Law, and the simultaneous demilitarisation of the territory of the Mapuche nation;

The implementation of concrete measures by the Chilean State to provide compensation to the Mapuche people within the framework of a wide-ranging programme of "truth and historical reparation";

Ratification of Convention 169 of the ILO (International Labour Organisation);

Respecting of Indigenous Law Nº 19.253, in relation to the implementation of infrastructure and development projects, particularly the use of sacred indigenous sites.

Our organisation joins the other Mapuche organisations and communities and publicly declares its unconditional support for the territorial claims of the Mapuche people and the right to exercise their autonomy and self-determination in their ancestral territory.

1641 - 2001: 360th ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE
MAPUCHE NATION

Mapuche International Link