The “newen”-the energies of the people and nature- were manifest in massive final goodbye to Jaime Mendoza Collio

While Jaime Mendoza Collio´s burial culminated to the sounds of the kull-kull and the kultrun, soft  rain and two rainbows covered the valley. The day was marked by deep respect and introspection, but also charged with contained impotence, rage and thirst for justice.  At the La Serena investigation police´s  labs, it was determined that the Mapuche youth did not carry a weapon at the time of his death and the experts didn´t find a trace of gunpowder on his body.  The young man´s  family has announced it will go to court against the state. We spoke to  Ambrosio Mendoza, Jaime´s father.

By Elías Paillan, from Requem Pillan, Monday, August 17, 2009.

Sad gazes are exchanged in search of some explanation for his untimely departure. Hundreds, thousands of people bid farewell yesterday to Jaime Mendoza Collio (24 años), young father of a two-year-old child, laborer, dreamer, Mapuche  weichafe (warrior) who now joins Matías Catrileo, Alex Lemun and others who have also given their lives to the mother that always receives them, the Earth.

His remains were buried to the beat of the Kull-kull, xuxuka and kultrun, at the cementery of the Requem Pillan community, after a long 3-kilometer  walk over a narrow and meandering road.  The pace was slow, at times silent, at times broken by shouts of “ Marichiweu!” and  afafan, symbols of the energy and the strength of Mapuche men and women.  Some expressed themselves  with signs that read “Mapuche, resist, continue recovering your territory, “assassin state of Chile, justice for our weichafe”, “murdererous and criminal chilean government, executioner of our peñi[brother]”, “peñi Jaime ,  your death will be avenged with blood and fire,” among others.

Young  weichafe s led the procession on horseback, their lances tied with a knotted red sash and leaves from the sacred canelo tree.  After them came the coffin, carried by men and followed by the community´s  authorities, the machi or healer, the lonko or head of the community, and  the werken, or messenger, followed by more weichafe bearing their staffs (wuño or chuecas).  For those of us there at the funeral, the most moving  moment of the day was marked by the soft rain that came down despite the cloudless sky, while two relmus or rainbows covered the eastern part of the valley, to the great astonishment  of all the people gathered there, while we heard the sounds of the instruments and the strong shout-outs of afafan and marichiweu .

The crowd that followed the procession had a very diverse provenance.  Communities  from the surrounding area and cities, and from other regions, from cities such as Temuco, Concepción and Santiago, bringing perhaps similar sentiments, along with grief, anger and the certainty that justice needed to be done, that the struggle must continue, even stronger than ever.  And it’s from that fatal day, August 13, the day when police  officer Patricio Jara Muñoz killed the young weichafe from the back , that the Mapuche feel an even greater commitment  to their demands, according to all the communiqués issued.

More on the Police´s responsibility

Today it was reported that the police officer Miguel Patricio Jara Muñoz, of the Special Forces Task Force from Santiago, GOPE, who shot Mendoza Collio in the back, as certified by the Medical Legal Institute of Angol, will be processed by the decision of the military prosecutor’s office and prosecutor Rodrigo Vera Lara.

Today we also heard the outcome of further examinations at a laboratory of La Serena, where crime investigation staff certified as the best in the country determined that the young Mapuche did not fire any weapons at the time he ran away from police. This contradicts the police´s version, which said that Mendoza Collio was carrying a gun.

Meanwhile, Radio Bío Bío reported that the family will file a criminal complaint for what they consider murder, in which a state-issued weapon was used, and will soon decide which legal team will represent them.

Dialogue with chachai José Ambrosio, an affected father

¿What are some thoughts you could share?

Chem piafvn kai peñi, what could be said about what happened. One day it was agreed to restore land, and my son said to me ‘you have experience Dad, you are more experienced in this fight, you´ve been there and seen a lot,’ he said. ‘Of course I´ll come,’ I told him, and I  livened up the newer ones and we went off to retrieve a part [of  land].

And then the pólice arrived?

The winka came and fought right away, but we did nothing brother, nothing, nothing, nothing. Why would I lie, brother, they shot right away, came in bearing firearms. According to news coming out, they´re accusing the Mapuche of having weapons, but what weapon is the Mapuche going to handle? What weapon would the Mapuche have? The weapon is just his body, he has nothing else. Instead they (the police) came and attacked immediately, peñi.

How would you call their actions?

As they have more power, I think they are just looking out for their country. But I think that they´re paid by individuals, how else to explain what they did to my family, it must be because they are paid, I wonder how many millions they might be receiving.

What would be your message to the young Mapuche?

There are so many future young Mapuche out there, this is for them, not for old folks like me–even more since my son had a child. They are going to need [land] later on, otherwise how will they live? (Full interview tomorrow).

(Traducida al inglés por Amalia Córdova).