18th January 2004
With reference to the detention of the Chiefs (Lonkos) Pascual Pichun and Aniceto Norin.
With the arrest of Pascual Pichun and Aniceto Norin and the sentence of ten years imprisonment handed down to peñi (brother) Victor Ancalaf, we have witnessed another landmark in the history of the repression of our people by the Chilean government. As this new act of state terrorism is directed against our chiefs it has an impact upon all our people.
Two trials have pronounced the chiefs not guilty. However, power, money and the political influence of Juan Agustin Figueroa mean that once again the legal administration of this country has been warped. Our brothers have been condemned under the pretence of a peculiar "terrorist threat" which has now become a familiar pretext to justify our continued oppression.
The government and the judicial system have sent an unequivocal message to the business community: anyone who poses a threat to the interests of the powerful people and companies who occupy our lands and destroy our way of life will be punished. The message they have sent to our people is also very clear, as the New Relationship they have offered us is in fact worse than the one we had before.
These warnings and acts of persecution have been carried out with the involvement of all the political parties, despite the efforts of our friends who have asked both the Chilean government to take a different approach. It seems strange to us that many Chileans, who themselves suffered the abuses and atrocities of a dictatorship which carried out genocide and ethnocide, are the very same people who enjoy power today and are the instigators and accomplices of the injustices against our people. We are left with the feeling that for us there is no democracy: we continue to be governed by the same laws and same methods of state terrorism that were used during the dictatorship.
We have been waiting for the president to make an announcement to the leaders of indigenous groups. This was expected once he had received, in amongst the discussions and false hospitality, the report of the Commission for Truth and a New Relationship. Now twenty days have passed since then and all we have received are acts of repression. Ex-commissioners have been threatened and imprisoned and our brothers prosecuted. Also no-one has been brought to trial for the extra-judicial killing of our peni (brother) Alex Lemun and the minimum compensation due to our people has been postponed indefinitely. We are united by the calmly stated words of Pascual Pichun: we have had more people imprisoned and persecuted under the democratic governments that we ourselves helped to install than under the dictatorship which we were not scared to fight against.
Our chiefs have been seized during some exceptional displays of repression, acts designed to create fear which are in sharp contrast to the serenity shown by our own ancestral authorities. This peace puts the lie to the government's attempts to characterise us as dangerous. This same serenity has given us more strength to fight with the peaceful means true to our nature to secure the release of our brothers and sisters captured by the Chilean state.
While Chilean citizens are frightened by the problems of increasing delinquency, this repressive state, instead of preventing or correcting these problems, throws its full weight down upon the people of our community. Once again we feel discriminated against as the main victims of state repression.
Today, the efficacy of the reform of the judicial system as a way of repressing and terrorizing our people has been proven. The message from the Chilean government (author of the reform) is clear: the Mapuche people will continue to be repressed and excluded.
We declare that we are one with our chiefs and their families. The ill treatment against them has been an attack against us. Today our brotherly action is on their behalf. We will work through all means possible for their freedom and for that of all our people who have been imprisoned.
We are calling for our Mapuche brothers and sisters and all indigenous peoples to express their solidarity with the prisoners and their families, victims of the terrorist repression carried out by the state.
Consejeria Indigena Urbana
Comision Juridica Indigena Urbana Warranka
Centro Mapuche de Estudio y Accion
Organizaciones indigenas urbanas
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Sent by: carlosruizr@entelchile.net