Mapuche Indians in Chile Struggle to Take Back Forests

[seemslikeadream]

Santiago Llanquin/ Associated Press
Mapuche Indians carrying lances demonstrated in June against the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Pucón, Chile. The forests in the south once belonged to them, but now they are filled with tree farms supplying lumber to United States, Japan and Europe, and the Mapuches are trying to reclaim them, employing tactics some say verge on terrorism.

By LARRY ROHTER

Published: August 11, 2004


RAIGUÉN, Chile - Before the conquistadors arrived, and even for centuries afterward, the lush, verdant forests of southern Chile belonged to the Mapuche people. Today, though, tree farms stretch in all directions here, property of timber companies that supply lumber to the United States, Japan and Europe.


But now the Mapuches, complaining of false land titles and damage to the environment and their traditional way of life, are struggling to take back the land they say is still theirs. As their confrontation with corporate interests has grown more violent, Chile's nominally Socialist government has sought to blunt the indigenous movement by invoking a modified version of an antiterrorist law that dates from the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, 1973 to 1990.

Despite international protests, 18 Mapuche leaders are scheduled to go on trial soon, accused under a statute that prohibits "generating fear among sectors of the population." The charges stem from a series of incidents during the past seven years in which groups of Mapuches have burned forests or farmhouses or destroyed forestry equipment and trucks.

"Clearly, this is a conflict in which some fairly serious crimes have been committed," said Sebastian Brett, a representative of Human Rights Watch in Chile. "But that does not mean you can call the people involved terrorists. These are crimes, not against human life or liberty, but basically against property, and they stem from a wide sense of grievance among the Mapuches that they have illegally been deprived of their lands."

more
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/11/international/americas/11chile.html

[struggle4progress]

1. kick

:kick:

[seemslikeadream]

3. Mapuche Put Earth First

Mapuche Put Earth First
An interview with Floriano
Cariqueo Colpihueque

In 1989, Floriano Cariqueo Colpihueque founded Promur, an organization that promotes the economic and cultural recovery of Chile's Mapuche people. Cariqueo Colpihueque, who has a degree in political economics from Havana University in Cuba, is a consultant to the United Nations Development Program in Santiago, Chile.


Multinational Monitor: Who are the Mapuche?

Floriano Cariqueo Colpihueque: We are the first inhabitants of the region south of Chile's Biobio River. Originally we lived as far north as where Santiago is today. Archaeological excavations near Puerto Montt show evidence of our culture dating back 12,000 years. We were known as Araucanos, the name the Spaniards gave us. But we call ourselves Mapuches, or "people of the earth."

There are certain minor differences within Mapuche culture. The Pehuenches live in the mountainous interior and take their name from the araucaria tree, which is central to their life. The Huilliches, "people of the forest," live mainly south of Osorno, in the area of Puerto Montt and in Chiloe.

Mapuches were the only Hispano-American nation that was never vanquished by the Spaniards. Pedro de Valdivia, a leading Spanish captain, won many battles before dying in combat against the Mapuche. Under the Spaniards, the Mapuche people never lost autonomy, maintaining our territory and independence in 10 million hectares of land south of the Biobio.

This was not the case, however, with the Chileans. After 30 years of constant war <1850s to 1880s>, the Chilean army dominated Mapuche territory and the government declared it state land. In 1883, Chile began deposing Mapuches of land, eventually ceding 428,000 hectares to us, or less than 5 percent of our original territory. The seeds of modern Mapuche poverty were sown back then.
http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/mm1195.09.html

Mapuche Indians occupy estates


By James Reynolds in Santiago
Members of the Mapuche Indian community in southern Chile have occupied several estates as part of a long-running campaign for land rights.



James Reynolds: The Mapuche say the estates belong to them by ancestral right
In a series of raids carried out over the past week, Mapuche activists have occupied 13 large estates owned by logging and farming companies.

Members of the Chilean Parliament are now calling on the government to begin direct negotiations with the Mapuche Indians, who say the land is theirs by ancestral right.

The properties are in the Araucania and Bio-bio regions of southern Chile, where many of the country's one million Mapuches live.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/331014.stm

Thanks struggle4progress, knew without looking who was kicking!

[Nambe]

2. My heart is truely with them.

Their herritage, ideals, and culture will someday be seen as evolved beyond western reality.

[seemslikeadream]

4. beautiful, beautiful people