The Chilean government has unleashed a wave of repression against the Mapuche people
Mapuche International Link
Press Release
Bristol, March 13 , 2002
In the past few days, the Chilean government has unleashed a wave of repression against the Mapuche people (indigenous to Southern Chile). Traditional Mapuche authorities have been seized by the Chilean security services and numerous leaders of Mapuche organisations and Mapuche communities have been arrested. Peaceful protests have been violently disrupted, thereby creating a permanent climate of fear and tension throughout all the ancestral territory of the Mapuche nation. The Mapuches demand the restitution of lands which have been illegally appropriated by the state and forestry firms. They are opposed to the carrying out of infra-structural projects which are destroying the environment and bio-diversity of the area and changing its ecosystem. The construction of the Ralco hydroelectric dam is one such project which is also directly preventing Mapuche communities from developing and from keeping alive their culture. The company concerned is desecrating Mapuche sacred sites, including cemeteries and areas which have ritual or religious significance.
 Mapuche man being beaten |
During the past months hundreds of Mapuche people have been arrested and imprisoned, among them old people, women and children. Others are lying injured in prison or in their own homes – victims of police brutality. Many of those injured will not use hospitals for fear of being arrested and imprisoned. According to the media, 140 Mapuches are being tried by legal tribunals which have been set up in Mapuche or Araucanian territory. The Chilean police are responsible for serious and flagrant human rights abuses.
Among those imprisoned are several Lonkos (traditional authorities and heads of communities) including: Pascual Pichún de Temulemu and Aniceto Norín from the Pantano community who are being charged under the Internal State Security Law and the Anti-terrorism Law – both these laws were introduced by the military regime of General Pinochet, but the present government, which opposed the laws when it was in opposition, now does not hesitate to enforce them most rigorously in order to crush the Mapuche people.
The repression has been particularly violent against the Mapuche-Pewenche. They are defending themselves against the threatened take-over and flooding of their land on the Bio-Bio River by the Ralco hydroelectric dam being built by the multinational ENDESA Company. On March 5th, 55 Pewenche were arrested, including old people, children and 11 women.
The repression is also directed against sympathisers with the Mapuche cause – several such people have been arrested and harassed by the security services and others have been expelled from Chile using the Law of Imprisonment on the basis of Suspicion. This law, too, was introduced by the military regime and abolished by the Democratic Government, but in practice, it is still fully enforced. The last such case was that of the Catalan journalist Marc Serra i Torrent who was deported yesterday – the government is thereby violating the basic right to freedom of expression.
In Temuco on March 6th, during a peaceful demonstration against the indiscriminate repression being practiced by the government, Mapuche people occupied the offices of the regional authorities in Cautín. This was in order to draw the public’s attention to the situation and to express their collective sense of unease in the face of racist statements being made by members of the authority. The police proceeded forcibly to empty the building and 12 organisers of the occupation were arrested.
We call upon the public, both nationally and internationally, and especially human rights organisations and environmental groups, to intervene in this situation and to ask the Chilean government to put an end to the repressive policies carried out against the Mapuche people; to free immediately all Mapuche political prisoners; to demilitarise Mapuche territory and to begin a dialogue with Mapuche leaders. We demand that the government respect the Indigenous Peoples Law concerning the ‘protection, promotion and development of indigenous peoples’ and that it observe intern ational human rights laws which were established by the UN and ratified by Chile – in particular, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Agreement on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the UN declaration outlawing all forms of racial discrimination.
Mapuche international link
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