Aggression against the Mapuche community has worsened with the recent police killing of a Mapuche activist, bringing this social and political struggle once again to the national forefront.

Below is an article published by: Latina America Press

In what appeared to be a turning point in the centuries-old conflict between the Chilean state and the Mapuche indigenous community last September [2007], Chile joined 142 other nations in ratifying the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

The declaration grants indigenous peoples the right to self-determination and self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs.

But four months after ratifying the declaration, aggression against the Mapuche community has worsened with the recent police killing of a Mapuche activist, bringing this social and political struggle once again to the national forefront.

In the early morning of Jan. 3 [2008], approximately 30 members of a southern Region IX Mapuche activist group attempted to occupy a farm located some 20 miles southwest of Temuco, the regional capital.

There they were met by armed carabineros (uniformed police), who fired on the activists, killing 22-year-old university student Matías Valentín Catrileo Quezada. Police later confirmed he was shot in the back.

“Criminalized” movement

The incident sparked protests throughout southern Chile — home to a large percentage of the country’s estimated 800,000 Mapuche — as well as in Santiago, where on Jan. 4 [2008] police arrested dozens of protesters and sprayed demonstrators with tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd in the city center. Several days later carabineros arrested Catrileo’s mother and sister during a demonstration in Temuco.

“This is sad situation, but one that’s not really surprising given how the Mapuche social movement has been criminalized in recent years,” says José Aylwin, who co-heads an organization called the Observatory for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“One manifestation of that has been the legal persecution of Mapuche leaders involved in protests to recover their lands. The result has been the jailing of those leaders under an anti-terrorism law that has been questioned by human rights organizations.”

During the Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) government, courts began applying an anti-terrorism law to cases involving Mapuche attacks on private property.

The law, which dates back to 1984, was originally aimed at controlling armed political groups involved in kidnappings, attacks on police stations and assassinations.

According to the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW), the anti-terrorism law is the “harshest” of all Chilean statutes.

“It doubles the normal sentences for some offenses, makes pre-trial release more difficult, enables the prosecution to withhold evidence from the defense for up to six months, and allows defendants to be convicted on testimony given by anonymous witnesses.

These witnesses appear in court behind screens so that the defendants and the public cannot see them,” notes a 2004 HRW report.