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MAPUCHE INTERNATIONAL LINK Tel/Fax: + 44-117-9279391 Website: www.mapuche-nation.org |
Mapuche vigil at the Chilean embassy in London
Press Release - 25th October, 2007
To express solidarity with the plight of the Mapuche people in Chile, supporters are to hold a vigil outside the Chilean embassy in London this Friday, 26 October. At 12.30pm the group of supporters will meet with the Chilean ambassador Mr Rafael Moreno and will present him with a letter addressed to the Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, expressing their concerns about the repression of Mapuche activists. After the meeting, the group will then hold a vigil outside the embassy.
The vigil is one of a number of events being held across Europe to mark a 'Day of International Solidarity with the Mapuche People'. The aim is to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by the Mapuche as they try to defend their ancestral lands and communities from the encroachment of both local landowners and large trans-national corporations. Activists and community leaders commonly receive sentences of up to 25 years for minor crimes and are frequently convicted on false evidence or by using confessions extracted under torture.
The Mapuche are committed to fighting their cause using only peaceful means but, despite this, they find themselves subject to anti-terrorist legislation first applied under the Pinochet regime. With no recourse to an impartial legal system, a number of Mapuche prisoners have initiated a hunger strike in a desperate bid to protest their innocence and to seek justice.
Judge Juan Guzman, an internationally acclaimed human rights lawyer had visited a number of such prisoners in recent weeks. He subsequently appeared on Chilean television and expressed his shock at the fact that human rights abuses continue to take place in Chile , in the form of repressive practices specifically targeted against the Mapuche. He added that a collusion of the economic objectives of both multi-national corporations and government were to blame for the inappropriate and discriminate application of such extreme measures.
For further information about the current situation of the Mapuche, including the trial of Chief Juana Paillalef and her family, please visit our website at http://www.mapuche-nation.org .
