Letter to the President of the Republic of Chile

This is the second time since 1997 that the government which you represent has made a request to the Courts of Justice to apply the Internal State Security Act in connection with the conflicts between [Mapuche] communities and the forestry companies.

This request was made a week after your presidential announcement of the measures which would meet Mapuche demands. This procedure makes evident a broader government strategy aimed at isolating and repressing those sectors which have promoted or supported the mobilisations, while legitimising [other] Mapuche leaders and councillors through artful negotiations and organisations, attempting to present to the public a crude image of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Mapuche or, in other words, of peaceful and violent ones.

The democratic mask which your government wore during the community dialogues [held between Minister G Quintana and Mapuche] and the announcements of economic measures to favour the [Mapuche] communities has not produced the desired effect. Indeed, the many criticisms of the inadequacy of your government’s offers, of the spectacle created by the government and Mapuche councillors, and the absence of the business sector as counterparts, have effectively undermined the signed Citizens’ Pact, and revealed it to be a wordy document that contributes nothing to the solution of the communities’ problems.

Assuming an end to ‘civilised measures’, your government - under pressure from the forestry companies - has requested the application of the Internal State Security Act, thus returning to repressive measures against Mapuche communities and their leaders.

Applying this legal-political instrument will promote arbitrariness, abuse of power and the violation of the individual and collective integrity of the communities, since it allows for procedures belonging to military justice, reduces the legal recourse to refute charges, sanctions vaguely defined behaviours and allows for wide-ranging police action. We see this measure as attempting to set an intimidatory example, and therefore as an attack on the whole of the Mapuche nation.

We vigorously reject the application of this Act, and the constant behaviour of the regional authority which represents you which has maintained a discriminating and abusive attitude towards the communities, while being subservient to economic powers. Your strategy only seeks to hide the profound reasons for the mobilisations, and reflects the ambiguity, ignorance and lack of will shown by your government to fully address the situation of Mapuche, something which would entail placing our collective rights as a people at the centre of the debate. These rights are currently being violated by a government which lacks democratic will, and by a state subservient to the interests and whims of the business sector.

COMMUNITIES IN CONFLICT

PASCUAL PICHUN, TEMULEMU

ANICETO NORIN, DIDAIKO

SANTIAGO NAHUELPI, EL PANTANO

MAPUCHE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION ÑANCUCHEU OF LUMAKO

MAPUCHE CORPORATION XEG-XEG

WOMEN’S CORPORATION AUKIÑKO ZOMO

CENTRE OF STUDIES AND DOCUMENTATION LIWEN

CODEPU CORPORATION

LATIN AMERICAN WATCHGROUP OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICTS

Temuko, 19 August of 1999