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MAPUCHE INTERNATIONAL LINK |
Victims of Earthquake and Tsunami in Chile
Mapuche communities seeking emergency humanitarian aid
Press Release – 15th March 2010
Mapuche International Link (MIL) calls for urgent international assistance to counter the humanitarian disaster, which threatens isolated Mapuche communities in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami which have ravaged Chile.
In contrast to official Chilean claims that ‘the situation is under control’, reports from Mapuche areas in the south of the country claim that rural communities are currently without ‘food, water, gas, electricity and telecommunications’. The status of the Mapuche-Lafkenche, who are based along Chile’s coastline, is of particular concern to MIL.
Substantial numbers of the Mapuche community live in geographically inaccessible areas which were isolated from the outside world even before the earthquake. As a result, it is extremely difficult to speak with any certainty of the full impact of the earthquake, especially as many areas are currently inaccessible due to the destruction of roads and communications equipment.
On the basis of past evidence, even when logistical difficulties are set aside, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Mapuche will again be marginalised and neglected.
Nina Dean, Vice Secretary of Mapuche International Link, draws attention to the fact that ‘the Mapuche currently face a violent and ongoing repression of their political and ancestral rights. Because of this, the Mapuche have just cause to fear that their needs, if met at all, will come last on the list of state priorities for crisis intervention and urgent aid relief’.
Due to their relationship with a state which refuses to recognise their legitimate political and cultural aspirations and also to the levels of poverty and social exclusion with which they must contend, the Mapuche people are uniquely vulnerable in the aftermath of the earthquake. This is especially true of isolated rural communities south of the Bio-Bio river.
We therefore call upon the international community and aid agencies to take all actions possible to ensure that the poorest and most marginalised members of Chilean society receive the help they so desperately need.
The Mapuche are an indigenous nation which straddles both southern and central Chile and Argentina. Their population is estimated at two million. They are the only indigenous nation from South America whose sovereignty and autonomy were formally recognised during the Spanish conquest of the continent. To this day, the Mapuche continue to struggle against the repression of their legitimate cultural and territorial rights by the Argentinean and Chilean state authorities.
For further information please contact Reynaldo Mariqueo from Mapuche International Link. Alternatively, you can contact the people listed in the attached document, who are working in the affected area.
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Information Sheet
Mapuche communities seeking emergency humanitarian aid
15th March 2010
OUTSIDE observers could be forgiven for assuming that Chile is gradually returning to normal in the aftermath of the enormous earthquake which struck the country on February 27th. Certainly, this is the impression which the country’s representative at the UN, Heraldo Muńoz, has been striving to create.
![[mapuche,maremoto-ayi.jpg]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wM5kA9urpas/S5XZjwr786I/AAAAAAAAAtY/cwlMbJkvEp4/s1600/mapuche,maremoto-ayi.jpg) |
While acknowledging the scale of the disaster, Muñoz has claimed that the situation is under control’ and that ‘we have the capacity to mobilise resources to help the population’. Accordingly, Chilean authorities initially only requested ‘limited assistance’ in the form of items such as satellite phones and electric generators. |
The impression that the Chilean response was commensurate to the scale of the disaster was further strengthened by the British ambassador to Chile, Jon Benjamin, who noted that ‘the Chileans have lots of experience in dealing with earthquakes and the response has been very impressive’. Press coverage of the Chilean operation was initially drastically at odds with the recent coverage of Haiti, when the UN, NGOs and governments were widely excoriated for their handling of that country’s humanitarian disaster.
Gradually, a different story has been emerging. It was immediately noticeable that both the Chilean authorities and international news sources tended to focus their attention upon Santiago and Conception, and the areas between the two cities.
Mapuche Bloggers at Comunidad Autónoma Temucuicui therefore observed that ‘apparently for the different governmental authorities of Chile, the strong earthquake only hit and devastated the big cities of the country’. Reynaldo Mariqueo of Mapuche International Link (MIL) also noted that ‘both Chilean T.V and the media in general appear to have forgotten the towns south of Concepción, which we are aware, have suffered an impact similar in scale of destruction’.
Certainly, outside viewers would, upon the basis of both the coverage of the international media and the utterances of the Chilean authorities, have failed to appreciate the extent to which the earthquake impacted upon the areas south of the earthquake’s epicentre known as Araucania. Silvia Viñas, writing on the Global Voices website, refers to a report from Southern Chile which speaks of ‘hundreds dead and disappeared, a complete lack of supplies and roads and communications cut off’.
This reality has not been reflected in the reports of the international media which, as in Haiti, have sometimes focused upon a misplaced fascination with potential unrest and confined instances of looting (in Concepción). In an equally insensitive display of their real priorities, other newspapers have consoled themselves, in the aftermath of an earthquake which killed hundreds and left an estimated two million homeless, with the fact that Chile’s copper industry should be exporting again relatively soon.
As a result of the indifference of the media and the scale of the catastrophe, Mapuche communities and their supporters have now mobilised to help themselves. The Mapuche-‘Lafkenche Territorial Identity’, a Mapuche regional group, has issued an appeal, which directly contradicts the Chilean government’s claim that essential supplies are not in short supply, for food aid and general supplies. A coalition of civil society organizations have mobilised to help Mapuche communities adjust to the challenges generated by the earthquake.
Mapuche International Link (MIL) has released a condensed press release which appeals for international assistance. See the contacts at the bottom of this page if you wish to find out more, or channel your support through them.
The Mapuche are an indigenous nation which straddles southern/central Chile and Argentina. Their population is estimated at two million. They are the only indigenous nation from South America whose sovereignty and autonomy were formally recognised during the Spanish conquest of the continent. To this day, the Mapuche continue to struggle against the repression of their legitimate cultural and territorial rights by the Argentinean and Chilean authorities.
List of Contacts:
Temuco: Centro General de Acopio:
Contacto: Cristina Ñancucheo:
Tel: +56-45-92936828
E-mail: cristinan329@hotmail.com
Los carreras N°152
Contacto: Marisol Huenuman
Tel: +56-45-89961925
Tel: marisol.huenuman@gmail.com
La Unión: Municipalidad de la Unión
Contacto: Glady Merino
Osorno: Calle Valparaíso 590
Contacto: Miguel Cheuqueman
Tel: 82327571
E-mail: rupanko2@gmail.com
Maullin: Sede Comunidad Trecahuenu
Contacto: Juan Carlos Cárcamo
Hualaihue: Municipalidad de Hualaihue
Contacto: Héctor Wite
Valparaíso: Corporación de desarrollo cultural y artesanos mapuches chilenos O.N.G.
Contacto: Longko Llao Paillao
Representante Legal: Marianela Ivonne Leiva Escobar
Dirección: Sindicato de Aux. de la Bahía Blanco: 74 Barrio Puerto Valparaíso, Chile.
E-mail: codecamach@hotmail.com
Temuco: Defensor Jurídico Social Antónimo Mapuche
Contacto: Werken Antonio Cadin Huentelao
Tel: 00-56-(0)45-213328 or 00-56-9-08-6373842
E-mail: puelcadin@yahoo.com
djs.autonomomapuche@gmail.com
