Photo of Santiago Maldonado
Translated to English from Spanish through Google Translate. See original statement in Spanish here.
The undersigned, organizations, communities and Mapuche, Argentine and Chilean people denounce the repressive escalation against the Mapuche people who, like so many times during the long colonial centuries, have been radicalized in recent months. Dozens of searches, detentions, and imputations were carried out during this time, violating the supposedly consecrated rights against these communities. The disappearance of Santiago Maldonado is part of this colonial offensive that on both sides of the mountain range represses the Mapuche movement.
In Puelmapu / Argentina for some years the business-governmental powers seek to shake the threat of an alleged “Mapuche terrorist guerrilla.” The current government of Mauricio Macri through its Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, has gone a step further by nationalizing the process of building an internal enemy in areas such as Vaca Muerta (Neuquén) and Cushamen (Chubut). In that context Lonko Facundo Jones Huala was arrested to face a second extradition process to Chile, where he was prosecuted for participating in a territorial defense process in Rio Bueno.
Since then the massive demonstrations of solidarity with the Lonko began to be suppressed, to the point that on August 1, Pu Villal (communities) in Resistance of the Department of Cushamen was disappeared social militant Santiago Maldonado, in solidarity with the cause Mapuche. The responsibility of this forced disappearance in democracy rests in Gendarmerie and in the National Government, since the operation was directed by the chief of Cabinet of the Minister Bullrich, Pablo Noceti. Since then the government, in complicity with the mainstream media and the judiciary, has tried again and again to divert its responsibility on the fact.
In addition to the raids in Cushamen, the Fuxa Trayen, Campo Maripe and Raquituwe (Neuquén) communities and the burning of a house in the Lof Vuelta del Río (Chubut) have suffered eviction attempts. At the same time, the various raids and solidarity marches have been detained in Buenos Aires (38), Neuquén (3 communes of Fuxa Trayen), Mendoza (2), Bariloche and Cushamen (10 detainees of Lof Cushamen) totaling 53 detainees joined by Lonko Facundo Jones Huala.
For its part in Ngulumapu / Chile, one of the model countries of the repression of the natives in the continent, is living a frame even more violent than the accustomed in recent years. On June 7, four prisoners – Ariel, Benito and Pablo Trangol and Lonko Alfredo Tralcal – began a hunger strike after they spent more than 110 days, after serving more than a year in pre-trial detention, prosecuted under the Anti-Terror Law. These long precautionary measures (such as pre-trial detention) beyond seeking effective sentences are intended to criminalize the leaders of the Mapuche movement and reduce the pressure of demands on communities.
This is the case of the ten detainees in the Luchsinger Mackay Case who have had several precautionary measures since April 2016, and whose trial is in process. All these people were arrested because of the alleged deportation of a single protected witness, who later recanted his statements. In addition, two Machi (spiritual authorities) were indicted: Francisca Linconao (who faces a second trial for this cause) and Celestino Córdoba, sentenced to 18 years in prison, although she was not found guilty. At this time the body of Macarena Valdés was also exhumed, because the community Newen Tranguil denounces that she was murdered by hired assassins of the company RP Global, now RP Arroyo, for opposing the installation of a hydroelectric project.
All this persecution reached a peak with the arrest of eight Mapuche referents on Saturday, September 23 in the framework of “Operation Hurricane”. The next day, the Temuco court allowed the eight people to be detained despite not having conclusive evidence: only conversations by messaging applications that at no time have been proven that come from peñi cell phones. This repressive framework is part of a historical act of the Chilean governments in the post-dictatorship: to deny the political content of the Mapuche demand to approach it as police facts.
We understand that all this repression and denial of rights against the Mapuche and other indigenous peoples in both countries is due to the fact that their territories are coveted by the national and transnational capital that seeks to develop in them activities such as mining, hydrocarbons, forest plantations and agribusiness, among others. That extractive model is the economic support of the political model on both sides of the mountain range, beyond the apparent differences between the two governments (current and past).
Repression of indigenous communities, then, is only a necessary condition for the development of capitalism promoted by these governments. The attempted dislocation of Mapuche political and social demand has required the complicity of governments, judges, prosecutors, security forces and businessmen. In the same way it has been articulated at the binational level: in order to repress the Mapuche people, the states of Argentina and Chile make no difference, as demonstrated by the meeting held on Friday by Mahmud Aluy, Undersecretary of the Interior of Chile with Patricia Bullrich, Minister of Security of Argentina to coordinate the repressive policy on both sides of the mountain range.
The Mapuche people, however, continue to live and continue to fight relentlessly against a colonialism that has not ceased since the genocide that both states committed to integrate these communities within their borders. In this sense, we openly show ourselves to be brothers and sisters, supporters and companions of these communities in struggle. Because we understand that, beyond the diverse perspectives, the only way to stop the capitalist advance in our territories is the unit of action.
Freedom for prisoners to fight
Appearance with life of Santiago Maldonado, the State is responsible
For the annulment of the antiterrorist laws in Chile and Argentina
