Editor’s Note: A call for International Solidarity with the Mapuche People who live both in Chile and Argentina has recently been issued. (Llamado del colectivo Solidaridad Internacionalista con la Lucha Mapuche Autonomista). Below are excerpts from the statement translated from the Spanish in Vocesenlucha. https://vocesenlucha.com/colectivo-solidaridad-internacionalista-mapuche/
We are a collective that stands in solidarity with the self-determination and right to rebellion of peoples. We defend sovereignty and territorial recovery. All of this from an anti-capitalist and anti-colonial perspective.
Our purpose is to bring visibility to the political conflict between Chile and Argentina regarding Wallmapu, understanding that the militarization of Mapuche territory is a strategy of dispossession and usurpation. It is a low-intensity war that protects the interests of large forestry, agricultural, and energy companies under the guise of maintaining “security and public order,” while justifying the political imprisonment, criminalization, and repression of the Mapuche people, who are stigmatized and dehumanized by the hegemonic media.
Understanding the history of the Mapuche people, from their struggle against the Inca and Spanish empires to the present day and their proposal for national liberation, allows us to show solidarity with their cause and join forces to stop the systematic violation of their fundamental rights.
Mapuche women. Photo: Ministerio Bienes Nacionales, CC BY 2.0
Let us remember that Spain recognized their sovereignty from the Biobío River southward. At the end of the 19th century, the Chilean and Argentine armies carried out a genocidal military campaign that resulted in the usurpation of their territory, massacres, the semi-slavery of their people, and the suppression of their independence as a people. However, they have managed to maintain their worldview through processes of territorial recovery and political, cultural, and spiritual reconstruction throughout the Allende government, the Pinochet dictatorship, and the various anti-Mapuche governments following the dictatorship.
Today, the Mapuche people are a vibrant community of two and a half million individuals with their own culture and language—Mapudungun—resisting a repressive government that has amassed over one hundred Mapuche political prisoners by applying “Enemy Criminal Law,” as reflected in the following cases from Gulumapu, where the State is incapable of respecting its own legal framework:
The cases of José Arzola and Dagoberto Queipul (arrested at age 16), sentenced to 51 years + 11 years (life imprisonment with special conditions) and + 10 years (the maximum sentence under the Juvenile Criminal Responsibility Law), respectively, after a trial riddled with inconsistencies and irregularities. Both have been on hunger strike since August, demanding a fair trial, which continues to be denied them after their appeal was rejected. Their health is critical, and they are hospitalized at the Intercultural Hospital of Nueva Imperial, where Dagoberto suffered bradycardia (a very slow heart rate) and has been transferred to the ICU. . . .
Lautaro Case – Juan Mardones, Pelentaro Llaitul, Jorge Caniupil, and Luis Mardones. Three years of pretrial detention. The trial will begin in November, and the prosecution is seeking 70-year prison sentences based on accusations from secret witnesses. The hearings have been held remotely (without access to interact with their lawyers, thus limiting their right to defense throughout the judicial process), before an Oral Court composed of biased, prejudiced, and anti-Mapuche judges. . . .
We urgently call for international solidarity to stand with a dignified people resisting occupation and extractivism. We invite collectives and organizations to unite and courageously denounce those who legitimize a cruel system that quantifies the value of people according to their socio-political status, religion, and worldview. Let us not allow the dehumanizing drift of the capitalist world. Let us revitalize the fabric of community in the face of individualism. May our people not have to be massacred to raise our voices. People in rebellion write history! Amulepe tain weichan (May the struggle continue).
By Internationalist Solidarity with the Mapuche Autonomist Struggle