Speech by Reynaldo Mariqueo on the Coronation of Prince Antonio V of the Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia
Monte Carlo, Monaco, November 22nd, 2025
Your Royal Highness,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my pleasure to address you on this momentous occasion for our kingdom, as we celebrate the coronation of the ninth Prince of the Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia, a historical event of paramount importance in the history of our kingdom, marking the 165th anniversary of its founding.
With the coronation today of Prince Antonio V, we wish to reaffirm the will of our ancestral Mapuche authorities, who, in a parliamentary session convened by the Toki Mañil (supreme chief of our nation), opted, in November 1860, after four days of deliberations, to adopt a new system of government. The Koyang, or Parliament of Wallmapu, representing the four territorial identities that comprised it, agreed to adapt its traditional political organization to the international standards of the time. The adoption of a constitutional monarchy and the proclamation of Orelie Antoine de Tounens as sovereign of the Mapuche state were carried out observing the traditional democratic protocols of our ancient culture, establishing political and legal foundations that are difficult to underestimate. It was precisely these solid legal bases that facilitated international recognition of the Mapuche state’s independence, as well as preventing the application of colonialist legal norms that the governments of Argentina and Chile had been planning to implement in order to justify the invasion.
This explains the propaganda campaign waged by spokespeople from both republics to discredit the kingdom and its founders through arbitrary claims and defamation, attempting to establish a narrative in which Orelie-Antoine de Tounens had arbitrarily proclaimed himself king and that the kingdom had been founded on Chilean and Argentine territory. This is why it is important to remember that the Kingdom was founded within a defined territory, whose border had been established in the Treaty of Killen on January 6, 1641, between the Spanish Crown and the Mapuche nation. This border was subsequently ratified through numerous bilateral treaties concluded during centuries of diplomatic and commercial relations between the two powers.
It is important to emphasize that the nascent states of Argentina and Chile ratified the border by invoking the legal principle uti possidetis juris, a rule that prevented them from modifying the border inherited from the Spanish Empire. It is also important to underscore that the Kingdom was founded before the military occupation of the Mapuche territory, or Wallmapu, and the genocide of the Mapuche population, which began in 1879 in Argentina and is known as the “Campaign of the Desert.” In Chile, the occupation could only be carried out after the end of the War of the Pacific between Chile, Bolivia and Peru in 1883. Therefore, the Kingdom was not founded in Chilean or Argentine territory, but in the free, sovereign and independent territory of the Araucanian or Mapuche state.
As we know, after the military occupation of Mapuche territory ended, King Orelie Antoine established a government in exile, using the 1860 political constitution of the state as its legal basis—an instrument that allowed our kingdom to endure. During the administration of Prince Frederick I, who reviewed the role of the kingdom, which in recent years had been transformed from an institution merely focused on commemorating the history of King Orelie-Antoine, the aim was to make it an effective instrument for supporting the rights and general interests of the indigenous communities of Wallmapu.
This change in direction angered a minority of anti-Mapuche elements within the Kingdom, who chose to boycott its work and reforms, forcing Prince Frederick to decree their expulsion from the institution. After the voluntary abdication of Prince Frederik on February 16, 2025, and the accession to the throne of Prince Antonio V, the successful shift initiated by his predecessor was revitalized. The reason given was that the peaceful struggle of the indigenous communities of Wallmapu has not ended. The fundamental struggle is focused on reconquering their territory to preserve the environment and ecosystems, maintain their culture, and recover their autonomy and self-determination.
Currently, the Argentine government of Javier Milei is curtailing the rights won by indigenous peoples since the occupation of their territory and is strangling the funding of social institutions, including those that promote the defense and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. In Chile, the presidential candidate of the same political and ideological affinity, José Antonio Kast, also proposes closing human rights institutions and withdrawing from the Human Rights Council and other UN agencies, as Javier Milei, a loyal disciple of President Trump, has already done.
In addition to the above, there is the militarization that includes the deployment of the Chilean army and navy in Araucanía and other Mapuche regions for almost four years. This has unleashed a wave of raids and searches of communities, arbitrary detentions, and violations of due process against Mapuche leaders who are peacefully fighting for their territorial rights. This situation demands the activation of the mechanisms at our disposal for monitoring human rights violations, reporting them, and denouncing them to the corresponding international bodies, so that both republics adhere to the use of international standards in the field of human rights.
Your Royal Highness, we celebrate your initiative to reactivate communication with the Mapuche communities of Wallmapu, as well as your willingness to spare no effort in addressing, through dialogue and diplomacy, the enormous task of tackling an unresolved historical problem that needs to be addressed internationally due to the lack of constructive solutions from the governments of the republics of Argentina and Chile.
Long live Prince Antonio V!
Long live Wallmapu!
Long live the Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia!
Thank you very much.
Duke Mariqueo of Melipeuko
Secretary of State for Diplomatic Affairs
Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia
