Alto Bio-Bio

A-Infos News Service,
Bulletin, June 1999

The Mapuche organisations, students, ecologists and volunteers who work in defence of human life and the environment in the Upper Bio-Bio, in Chiles 8th region, wish to inform the national and international communities of the following:

Today, 21 May, we have decided to bring to an immediate halt the construction work on the illegal electric dam project at Ralko. This dam construction violates: the Environmental Act, the National Monuments Act, and the Indigenous Act which in its article 13 states that indigenous lands may not be sold, seized or expropriated.

The land on which this dam is being constructed is indigenous land, Mapuche Pehuenche land. The Chilean state has passed these laws and it should be the first to respect them. In the case of the Ralko dam, the State itself has broken its own law. We, the organisations who work to defend life, are therefore exercising our legitimate right to rebel in defence of what is ours: the territory, the rivers, the mountains, the flora and fauna - the power of nature.

We call on the Chilean government and its representative, Provincial Governor Juan Carlos Coronata, to put an immediate stop to the construction work.

We call on our Mapuche brothers and sisters, on social, Human Rights and environmentalist organisations, on the intellectuals and the media personalities, to come to PALMUCHO IN THE UPPER BIO-BIO to show their solidarity and support our action.

We call on the Spanish State, on the electric company of that country, and on its president Martin Villa, to desist in this dam construction on Mapuche Pehuenche territory. We, the Mapuche, will not accept another genocide of our people, this time by the hand of the Spanish State. We call on the whole of Spanish society to mobilise to stop the genocide construction project of the Ralko dam.

We, the organisations committed to the defence of life on the upper Bio-Bio, issue a warning! We are prepared to organise at every level to prevent this genocide construction project.

We call on the international community and its different organisations to express their solidarity with our - Mapuche Pehuenche - just cause, and to put pressure on Chile, Spain and the other countries involved in the realisation of this project, so that this construction work on the Ralko dam may be stopped, which otherwise will affect human life and biodiversity in a large territory where we, the Mapuche Pehuenche, live.

KIE NEWENTUIN (ONE UNIFIED FORCE)