CHILE: MAPUCHE HUNGER STRIKE OVER, VIOLENCE CONTINUES

Pro-Mapuche activist Patricia Troncoso was transferred at 1 a.m. Monday morning from a Chill·n clinic to Region IX’s Temuco Hospital. The activist ended her 112-day hunger strike last week after the Chilean government agreed to meet her demands. Doctors say Troncoso is recuperating well from the harsh effects of her prolonged fast. Troncoso reached an agreement with President Michelle Bachelet last Wednesday after some deliberation. The benefits granted Troncoso include weekend leave for her and two fellow Mapuche activists, as well as the right to continue her sentence in the semi-open Angol Work Center (ST, Jan. 30).

Despite Troncoso’s good spirits about her recovery, however, her mood altered last Thursday upon learning that Walter RamÌrez, the police officer who shot Mapuche activist MatÌas Catrileo in early January (ST, Jan. 4), has been released from the Special Forces Prison in Angol.

“The Mapuche will never enjoy due process of law because the State has pre-emptively judged the Mapuche cause,” she said in a communique from the hospital. “MatÌas Catrileo was assassinated...this case must be judged in a civilian tribunal.”

Catrileo’s mother, MÛnica Quezada, reacted somewhat differently, insisting that RamÌrez’ release was not a reversal of justice because the Carabinero still awaits trial.

Meanwhile, violence continues to ravage Region IX, where people of direct Mapuche descent make up roughly 25 percent of the population. Two attacks on trucks occurred last week near Temuco, the regional capital. The first truck was stopped Friday by seven hooded people shooting firearms and attempting to blockade the road into Vilc·n. The second incident occurred just minutes later when a different group of about 20 people forced a driver to get out of his truck on the road to Temuco and proceeded to set the truck on fire with Molotov cocktails.

Interior Undersecretary Felipe Harboe said there is no proof that links last week’s attacks to Mapuche groups. “I think it’s not fair to stigmatize the Mapuche community. It was a violent minority who committed these acts,” he said.

Archbishop Ricardo Ezzatti has also spoken out about the stigmatization of the Mapuche. “From the experiences I have had, and this is what I believe, the Mapuche are a peaceful people,” he said. “I deeply believe from my experience that (this violence) corresponds to a minority that doesn't represent Mapuche interests.”

Though government officials hope that last week’s appointment of Rodrigo EgaÒa as the new presidential commissioner for indigenous issues will begin a new era of smoother relations between indigenous communities and the Chilean State, EgaÒa’s role has been heavily critiqued.

JosÈ Santos Millao, an advisor under the National Corporation for Indigenous Development (CONADI), denounced the creation of EgaÒa’s new post as an insufficient provision by the government. He called for more proactive measures in favor of the Mapuche population, including constitutional recognition and government representation.

In the past several months Mapuche groups have pushed hard for some type of political autonomy. Last November, the first-ever Mapuche political party, Wallmapuwen (“Tierra Mapuche”), was formed. The creation of the new party was strongly influenced and catalyzed by Spanish separatist groups Batasuna, from Basque Country, and the Galician Nationalist Block (BNG).

BNG member Bieito Lobeira, a prominent supporter of Mapuche autonomy, said, “We are not necessarily speaking of independence but of a unique political structure that would permit the Mapuche community to makes its own decisions or co-decisions within the states of Argentina and Chile.”

(Ed. Note: See related feature story below – a La Tercera editorial chastising Bachelet for negotiating with hunger striker Troncoso.)


SOURCES: EL MERCURIO, LA TERCERA, LA NACION
By Alex Cacciari