Indianz.Com > News > People’s World: Mapuche people targeted by military on their own lands
Mapuche people under siege by Chilean military; genocide being charged
Friday, November 19, 2021
People's World
In the southern sector of Chile, a “state of exception”—a euphemism for a “state of emergency”—has been declared by President Sebastian Piñera. Troops have been sent to the Araucania region, the land of the Mapuche Indigenous nationality. (Note: The government’s name for the area, Araucania, is considered a pejorative term by many Mapuche.)
Piñera has said four provinces have experienced what he claims to be a “serious disturbance of public order.” Mapuche leaders, in turn, charge government forces with genocide—including the wanton invasion of Indigenous land, the burning of homes, the torture and killing of Native residents, and allegations of “drowning babies in the rivers.”
The Mapuche are the ancient inhabitants of what is now southern Chile and Argentina. Numbering 1.7 million, they make up 12% of the Chilean population and are the majority of the country’s Indigenous people.
The invasion of the bloodthirsty, gold–hungry Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century set off a nearly 350-year military struggle from 1541 to 1883 to fight off European domination. The Mapuche maintained one of the most successful martial resistance movements in the history of Indigenous peoples in this hemisphere. Historically, their resistance is truly inspirational. Presently, the Mapuche are still engaged in what has been a long fight to be recognized under the Chilean constitution. The current constitution—due to be replaced—was crafted during the fascist military rule of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The Chilean constitution is the only legislative document in all of Latin America that does not acknowledge Indigenous people within the country’s borders. Pinochet came to power in 1973, overthrowing socialist Salvador Allende with tremendous U.S. criminal complicity. The information sent by way of the “Indian Grapevine” at the time of Pinochet’s revolt was that he turned on Chile’s Indigenous peoples with a vengeance. There were reports that fascist doctors conducted fiendish Dr. Mengele-type experiments on Indigenous prisoners. As much of their remaining land in the intervening decades was confiscated and sold to commercial agriculture interests and forestry companies, one of the paramount Mapuche demands has been the restoration of historic lands. The land that the Mapuche are referring to are the vast tracts of Indigenous territory given to oligarchical, rich business families during the fascist dictatorship of Pinochet that lasted until 1990.#Chile | Chileans take to the streets to protest the murder of a Mapuche youth by the military. pic.twitter.com/98lumTVjau
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) November 9, 2021
Albert Bender is a Cherokee activist, historian, political columnist, and freelance reporter for Native and Non-Native publications. He is currently writing a legal treatise on Native American sovereignty and working on a book on the war crimes committed by the U.S. against the Maya people in the Guatemalan civil war of the late 20th century. Albert is a consulting attorney on Indigenous sovereignty, land restoration, and Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) issues. He is the recipient of several Eagle Awards by the Tennessee Native American Eagle Organization.
This article originally appeared on People's World. It is published under a Creative Commons license.
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