Mapuche hunger strike continues

On 23rd January, 2008 five Mapuche rights activists were in the 103rd day of a hunger strike at the Temuco and Angol prison in Chile's Region IX. Each of the hunger strikers—Mapuches Jaime Marileo Saravia, Juan Millalen Milla, Hector Llaitul Carrillanca and Jose Huenchunao and non-Mapuche Patricia Troncoso Roble—has lost more than 25 kilos.
Patricia Troncoso is seriously ill, the last week end five doctors visited her and agreed to move her to a Santiago hospital, also they denounced that she has been keep chained to her bed, despite she is extremely weak. The five prisoners have been on hunger strike since Oct. 10 to demand the release of more than 20 indigenous Mapuche activists they consider political prisoners; an end to the militarization of the traditional Mapuche territories; and an end to repression against Mapuche activists.

On Nov. 21, agents from the militarized Carabineros police attacked a peaceful march in Santiago in support of the Mapuche prisoners on hunger strike. Police arrested 17 women, 15 men and two minors. The same day, Nov. 21, six other Mapuche activists—five of them
women--began an open-ended hunger strike at the cathedral in the community of Canete, in Arauco province, Region VII, in support of the five prisoners. On Nov. 28, retired judge Juan Guzman met with Interior Minister Belisario Velasco to seek the government's urgent intervention on behalf of the five Mapuche prisoners, who are serving harsh sentences under an "anti-terrorism" law passed under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte (1973-1990). (PiensaChile.com, Nov. 29; Communique from Canete Hunger Strikers, Nov. 28; Programa Radial Mapuche Wixage Anai, Nov. 22; all via Red Solidaria por los Derechos Humanos-REDH)

On Nov. 7 Chilean authorities suddenly moved prisoners José Huenchunao and Patricia Troncoso Robles to the hospital in Angol in Region IX, apparently because of the effects of a 28-day hunger strike. Along with three other prisoners—José Millalen, Jaime Marileo and Hector Llaitul—Huenchunao and Troncoso started an open-ended hunger strike on Oct. 10 to demand the release of more than 20 indigenous Mapuche activists they consider political prisoners; an end to the militarization of the traditional Mapuche territories; and an end to repression.

As of Nov. 8 the authorities hadn't released information on Huenchunao and Troncoso's condition. Huenchunao, a Mapuche, suffers from chronic gastritis and has lost about 12 kilograms. Troncoso, a non-Mapuche supporter, may have been weakened by three previous hunger strikes. She carried out a fast of about 30 days in 2005 and then a 63-day strike, along with three other prisoners, from Mar. 13 to May 14 in 2006. The four prisoners resumed the strike for one week in May 2006 but suspended the action when legislators agreed to consider a bill allowing conditional release for the prisoners — a bill the Senate ended up voting down in September 2006.

The Mapuche prisoners charge that they are not treated impartially by the judicial system as they try to fight against privatization and other neoliberal policies in their traditional territories. The government of Socialist president Michelle Bachelet is pursuing economic policies inherited from the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, according to hunger striker Hector Llaitul, who called for solidarity actions. There have been protests in Chile, and on Oct. 26 activists demonstrated at the Chilean embassies in Geneva and London.