"werken" Mapuche José Huenchunao Mariñan, From Prison!!

José Huenchunao Mariñan, From Prison!!

As a "werken" and Mapuche political prisoner from within the Angol penitentiary, I want to express to civil society and especially to my people that my detention was the result of both a wise police maneuver and a mistake of mine.

Now the bottom line is that I am a political prisoner persecuted by the Chilean State and the capitalist system of domination that snatches the natural resources that belong to the Mapuche People.

I will now be one of the many Mapuche political prisoners that are imprisoned in the different jails of this Chilean State.

We know that jails are places of punishment that the Chilean State and its political and judicial administrators have made as a stop for all those who struggle or represent the Mapuche Nation socially and politically.

Sooner or later, we shall see how our people will detach themselves from this oppression and will walk forward as a dignified people on the road towards freedom with autonomy and territory. The historic demand of our people will not be silenced; it will rise as an emblem, once and ten times, in the heart and political action of the Mapuche.

Our people know that their prisoners, their underground agitators, and their dead are for the just historic demand of our Nation; for its political and territorial rights.

Without a doubt, I will remain in jail as a Mapuche - dignified and proud of being Mapuche. THOSE WHO ARE IN THEIR COMMUNITIES WILL KNOW HOW TO ORGANIZE THE RESISTANCE AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OUR PEOPLE; THEY WILL GUARANTEE THE MOVEMENT TOWARDS FREEDOM THAT BELONGS TO OUR PEOPLE.

Moreover, I want to add that our detention does not mean that they have disarticulated this so-called "violent" organization; these words are nothing more than orientated phrases that pretend to negate our existence as a People/Nation. I ASSURE YOU THAT WITHOUT US, THE SO-CALLED "RINGLEADER" OF A MAPUCHE ORGANIZATION, THE COMMUNITIES WILL CONTINUE DEMANDING AND RECONSTRUCTING THEIR RIGHTS.

! Justice will only exist until rights of the Mapuche People/Nation

are recognized!

José Benicio Huenchunao Mariñan

Mapuche Political Prisoner, From The Angol

Penitentiary in Southern-Chile

March 21th, 2007.

translated by:Women's Coordinating Committee Chile-Canada