OCIEL SANTIS - Declaration of Mapuche Political Prisoner from the Lebu Prison

Declaration of Mapuche Political Prisoner from the Lebu Prison  

In a public declaration submitted from the Lebu prison, Mapuche  

Political Prisoner Ociel Santi, of the community Nicolas Calbullanca, of the Lleu  

Lleu sector of the province of Arauco, makes a call out to all human  

rights organizations and to Mapuche communities to bear conscience of  

the repression on behalf of the State of Chile; to continue with their  

demands for the collective rights that they hold as ancestral people; and to  

refuse the hand-outs from the State.  

 Source: RedChem, Meli Wixan Mapu  

Public Communiqué

December 14, 2006  

 I, Ociel Santi, Mapuche Political Prisoner from Arauco, would like to  

share with the national and international public, human rights  

organizations, media outlets and particularly with civil society and  

the Mapuche people, the following:  

We the Mapuches have a way of thinking that is rooted in respect. We  

have a system of life that is different from the non-Mapuche world - which  

has not recognized the humiliation and marginalization that our people have  

suffered for over 500 years. Nevertheless, in many sectors of the wallmapu  

there remains a permanent demand for our political and cultural rights.  

Our communities, wounded by the loss of territory, even in a so-called  

democracy, suffer physical and psychological repression, in the form of  

terrifying threats and permanent political persecution.  

Therefore, it is extremely urgent that the government of Chile start to  

show some signs of a rapid solution, with a minimal willingness to  

remedy the situation in Mapuche communities. Enough is enough of imprisoning  

Mapuches and forcing people underground. It is unreasonable for the  

state of Chile to insist on presenting band aid solutions where fundamental  

needs persist, such as the recognition of territorial, social and political rights. 

The time is now for the authorities to realize that  

the means of assimilation in the form of subsidies, projects, and  

government programs of integration only destroy our way of life in the  

communities, and directly attack our autonomy and our legitimate right to free  

self-determination.  

For this, I would like to call on the public, on human rights  

organizations, and on the communities that hold a real consciousness of  

the violence and the oppression of the State of Chile, to demand our  

collective rights that we hold as ancestral people, and to not accept the  

handouts of the state.  

Lastly, I want to affirm that I am not a common political prisoner, but  

rather a victim of the criminalization and dispossession that is lived  

by my Mapuche people. I demand my freedom, because it is unjust that they  

assign me five charges, of which none are true or provable, only for  

being Mapuche and for possessing clear principles that are founded in the  

restitution of my people with the aim of attaining its liberation.  

Lebu Prison, 2006 December 12th  

 Arauko Mongen Palei !!!  

MARICHIWEW !!!