Solidarity to Mapuche communities! Freedom for all Mapuche political prisoners NOW!

April 7, 2011 Void Mirror

From Athens Greece, from Mexico city to London, from New York to Bilbao,
from Hamburg to Sofia and from Katmandhou to San Francisco, from all the
active cells of Void Network we are expressing our solidarity to the
struggle of Mapuche for Mother Earth, for the Dignity and Freedom of their
communities, for the Freedom and Dignity of all of us. The Struggle of
Mapuche people is our own struggle, their dreams are our own dreams!
Freedom for all political prisoners, Freedom for all Mapuche prisoners
NOW!

Dear Friends,
this is a message from
Mexico City, 23rd March 2011.

Last September we contacted you during the more than eighty day hunger
strike staged by Mapuche political prisoners in Chile. At that time we
also made a call for international support, numerous individuals and
organizations signed up to this cause and responded to the call for
support. This included various meetings in the Chilean Embassy in Mexico
City in Europe and in other countries around the world which formed part
of the international events to provide solidarity and support to these
political prisoners in Chile. The hunger strike was ended with an
agreement on the part of the Chilean government to not try the detained
under terrorist law (which also permits repeated prosecution for the same
crime). The hunger strike and the mass support in Chile and beyond made a
huge impact, pressurising the Chilean government to respect the basic
individual guarantees for the prisoners. Last March all of the seventeen
Mapuche political prisoners, persecuted for supposed terrorist crimes,
were cleared of those supposed crimes and the majority of them were freed.
However, four prisoners who are members of the Arauco Malleco Organisation
(Coordinadora Arauco Malleco) have been condemned to prison sentences of
between twenty and twenty five years. These are Ramón Llanquileo
Pilquiman, José Huenuche, Jonathan Huillical and Héctor Llaitul. It is
important to note that the Arauco Malleco Organisation is one of the
Mapuche organisations which is most active in the defence of communal land
against forestry companies and which vindicates indigenous autonomy most
rigorously. It is clear that the sentences are not only severely
disproportionate however there are also political reasons behind their
invention. The prisoners have now begun another hunger strike which
started on the fifteenth March. At the time of writing this hunger strike
continues. The prisoners defence will appeal against the sentences,
presenting a call to declare the charges void to the Chilean Supreme Court
of Justice. The principal arguments are that in these cases “faceless
witnesses” were permitted. These secret witnesses are anonymous and the
defence is not permitted to have any form of contact with them.
Furthermore, during their detention and time in prison there have been
violations of constitutional guarantees, confessions under torture,
declarations outside of the allowed time limit and without the presence of
defending lawyers. There has also been repeated trial for the same
alleged crime.
It is therefore that support groups from various parts of the world will
impulse diverse actions of solidarity for the prisoners and pressure on
the Chilean government. The objectives are to support the demand to
declare the charges and trial void that have been declared against these
four prisoners. In these actions we also send a message of solidarity to
those prisoners on hunger strike.
As part of these actions we also send another letter to you with the hope
that we can once again count on your signature. We send you warm regards.

Support Organisation for the Mapuche political prisoners in Chile [
Mexican Section.]
We, artists, academics, indigenous, civil and popular organisations of
various nationalites wish to make public our concern for the sentences
against the Mapuch political prisoners in Chile, Ramón Llanquileo
Pilquiman, José Huenuche, Jonathan Huillical y Héctor Llaitul. We find
the enormous sentences against them alarming as well as the fact that they
have not had the legal guarantees that protect the most basic of human
rights. It must be considered that the State can not respond to
indigenous demands of land, territory and autonomy by criminalising social
protest. We call upon the Chilean State to guarantee the due and proper
trial of the detained, a trial without the use of secret witnesses, with
tribunal impartiality, dignified conditions of detainment and an end to
repeated trial for the same alleged crimes. We call upon the Chilean
State to the rights and basic guarantees of the Mapuche people, to
recognise the rights of indigenous peoples consecrated in the 169th
declaration of the WLO and to respond urgently to the demands of the
hunger strikers. We send a message of solidarity from all over the world
to the prisoners and their families.


autonomía! autogestión! horizontalidad! libertad!


Jovenes en Resistencia Alternativa

www.espora.org/jra

ciudad de méxico: 36266692

Void Network
[Theory, Utopia, Empathy, Ephemeral Arts]
http://voidnetwork.blogspot.com

please send your messages of solidarity:
the signs will be received in

libertadpresosmapuche@gmail.com

for more info about the Mapuche Nation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche

for a short intro of the struggle of Mapuche in 21st century:
http://www.13point7billion.org/2009/12/still-fighting-chiles-mapuche.html