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Original article: Declaración pública Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco ante el cierre del gobierno saliente: «La causa mapuche no se criminaliza»

Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco Statement

In response to the recent remarks made by officials from the outgoing government, who have sought to whitewash and justify their repressive neoliberal policies, it is imperative to highlight the following:

The statements by Undersecretary of the Interior, Víctor Ramos, and the presidential delegate for the Arauco province, Humberto Toro, represent political opinions delivered in the context of the end of their administration, aimed at justifying their repressive, colonial, and racist actions against the justified demands of the Mapuche movement. Once again, there is an attempt to discredit the legitimate demands for autonomy by linking them to common crime.

This government attempts to validate its performance through statistics that claim a supposed decrease in «rural violence.» However, these figures and narratives obscure the true nature of a historical conflict between the Mapuche people and the Chilean state, as well as the capitalist investment processes in Wallmapu.

These declarations deliberately omit the entire authoritarian legislative framework they promoted, the permanent militarization of the territory serving large forestry companies, and the implementation of repressive and persecutory laws against the Mapuche movement.

The management of the conflict by this pseudo-progressive government has resulted in indiscriminate repression against all expressions of Mapuche struggle, which has practically meant that over 140 Mapuche community members remain incarcerated in various prisons of the Chilean state, many of them having their political and cultural rights violated even while incarcerated.

In particular, in response to the arrogant and racist remarks of delegate Toro, who claims to have the authority to define what belongs to Mapuche culture and reduces the struggle in lavkenche territory to common crime, we provide a concrete example: it has been resistant communities and organizations that have faced the depredation of forestry and extractivist companies.

One of the greatest achievements has been preserving Lake Lleu Lleu as one of the cleanest in Latin America. This is solely the result of communities defending their territory against extractivist policies and unscrupulous entrepreneurs who attempted to turn this part of Wallmapu into a mining area or spaces for the economic elite’s recreation.

We affirm clearly that the Mapuche cause and its legitimate historical demands will never be reduced to the realm of criminality. We also reject any attempt to link the entire movement to crimes such as timber theft, the final link of which has historically been connected to large forestry companies, with the complicity of police and judicial sectors.

We have been critical of errors made by certain sectors, but these have been isolated by the movement itself. It is unacceptable to generalize or belittle the dignified Mapuche resistance.

The so-called «Peace and Understanding» proposal promoted by the outgoing government was nothing more than an attempt to guarantee security and stability for large businesses and far-right landowners in Wallmapu. It was widely rejected by the communities because it did not address the concrete needs of the Mapuche Nation nor possess legitimacy within the autonomy movement.

The permanent establishment of militarization in the territory, along with the repression and political persecution directed against the autonomy movement, ultimately confirmed the failure of this policy.

Presenting the incarceration of Mapuche cause militants as an achievement is nonsensical: territorial reclamation and the demand for freedom for political prisoners will remain fundamental flags of our struggle.

The assessment made by the government of President Gabriel Boric only reaffirms an evident reality: the Mapuche people have been betrayed by consolidating a modernized repressive apparatus, leaving the conditions for a new far-right administration to maintain the system of domination with increased levels of impunity.

For all the above reasons, we issue this statement to express our position in light of the new political scenario, where the state will be in the hands of neofascist sectors, deepening the invasion of big capital into ancestral territory.

Despite the repression and the demonization campaign led by the ruling party and the press serving the powerful, the struggle for territorial and autonomy rights will continue. Campaigns of discredit will not erase the historical memory or the legitimacy of the Mapuche resistance.

The defense of territory and the recovery of usurped lands remain pillars of a historical project of national liberation that endures in various expressions of community resistance, within which the proposal of the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM) coherently sits, which remains active and strengthened.

Fantepu mu, petu newentuleyiñ taiñ Mapuche ngen, müleyi pu Lof tüfachi Wallmapu mew inkanealu itrofill mongen, fey mew amuleay tüfachi weychan, welu wewngelayaiñ.

For territory and autonomy !!

Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco

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