Chile:
Patricia Troncoso, a symbol of the Mapuche struggle against a
Government at the service of forestry companies
The young indigenous Mapuche leader,
Patricia Troncoso has been on a hunger strike since 10 October
2007. She was given a prison sentence of 10 years and a
day, accused of terrorist arson at the Poluco Pidenco property.
This fire took place in December 2001 and the alleged perpetrators
were tried, in the presence of “faceless witnesses” (that is to
say, anonymous witnesses), under the Anti-terrorist Law created
during the military dictatorship.
That is to say, it was a trial without
even a minimum guarantee of due process of law as established
in the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and ratified by
Chile.
The case of Patricia is not unique.
There are over 20 Mapuche political prisoners in the prisons of
Angol, Victoria, Lebu, Concepción, Temuco and Traiguén. Most of
them have been tried under the anti-terrorist legislation which
entered into force during the dictatorship of Pinochet.
To this is added the atrocious murder
that occurred very recently (3 January 2008) of Matias Catrileo
a 22 year-old Mapuche who was shot in the back by Chilean police.
None of this is accidental. The Chilean
State has placed itself at the service of forestry companies and
while the police repress, torture and kill, the legal powers criminalize
the Mapuche struggle. In this respect, the historian, Víctor Toledo
Llancaqueo says that “The Mapuche case is illustrative of the
criminalization of social protest, as a political, media and legal
process, branding acts of protest as crimes, seeking to remove
social conflicts out of the political arena and take them to the
criminal field. The objective of those promoting criminalization
is to launch the State’s punitive powers in order to neutralize,
discipline or destroy social protest.”
Toledo Llancaqueo adds that “The mass
media and right-wing sectors have been key actors in the process
of criminalizing Mapuche protest. Faced by the emergence
of indigenous mobilization, they actively promoted making it unlawful,
penalizing it and having it classed as a matter of security.
For their part, the forestry companies have felt that the conflict
with Mapuche communities actively damages their corporate image.
Accused of ecological damages and repression of indigenous people
by private guards, they have become exposed to the loss of some
markets. In order to address this state of affairs, the major
forestry groups are putting pressure on the government and on
public opinion to get the conflicts solved by criminal courts.
Thus, they have magnified the economic effects of Mapuche protests
and the figure of arson.”
The situation of repression and criminalization
of the Mapuche people, who are struggling to recover their ancestral
territories today occupied by forestry companies, becomes more
serious every day, while the State and the mass media endeavour
to make it invisible. However, the solidarity of a growing number
of Chileans is also increasing, and they have started mobilizing
in defence of the rights of this people. In a recent declaration,
they affirm that “both the crime against Matias – whose perpetrator
we hope will be condemned as an example by Justice – and the unjust
treatment given to Mapuche prisoners, are the result of a policy
of systematic repression by the Chilean State against the Mapuche
communities and at the service of the forestry, electricity and
large landowning companies, that does not fall in line with our
country’s position before international organizations and fora”
and demand that “the Government ends this situation of institutionalized
injustice, taking up an active policy of respect and in defence
of the human and ancestral rights of the Mapuche people.” (See
full declaration in Spanish at
http://www.wrm.org.uy/paises/Chile/Declaracion_2008.html)
More than 3 months after she started
her hunger strike, Patricia Troncoso tells –from prison- the Chilean
people, and the world “...that the illegitimate violence of money
and power, that imprisonment, persecution and criminalization
of our cause, that police brutality, are not the way to solve
the historical and political problem with our people. Because
while you, the politicians, come and go, future generations of
Mapuche people continue to germinate and grow. And the Mapuche
will continue to resist your arrogance and domination. We will
continue to struggle, we will continue to resist and we know that
for each one that falls, ten shall rise up.” (Her message -in
Spanish- may be seen in video at
http://www.wrm.org.uy/Videos_Esp/Patricia_Troncoso.html)
Patricia has today become the symbol
of the struggle of a people that time and time again have shown
that her words are true, because for each one that fell, ten arose.
And until justice is done, they will continue to arise!
By Ricardo Carrere, WRM, rcarrere@wrm.org.uy
