The contemporary political history
of the Mapuche

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The history in general of the Mapuche

Argentina

Mapuche to be evicted Sep 20

From SAIIC, 18 September 1996. Judges of the Tribunal Oral Federal from the state of Neuquen in the traditionally Mapuche region of Pulmari decided to evict the Mapuche people from their ancestral land, give support to "La Corporacion Pulmari" (CIP) to exploit the area for business interests.

Chile

Temuco-Wallmapuche Declaration on the North American Free Trade Agreement, Indigenous Peoples and their Rights

2 December 1994. The Mapuche nation's organization Aukin Wallmapu Ngulam-Consejo de Todas las Tierras (Council of All the Lands), convened a conference on November 20, and December 1-2 to analyze the implication that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will have for Indigenous peoples that live in Chile and in America.

UN Mapuche leader, detained in Santiago, Chile

Mapuche International Link press release, 10 May 1999. Pedro Cayuqueo arrested on his arrival from Geneva where he had taken part in the 55th Annual Session of the Commission of Human Rights of the United Nations. He went to Geneva as the Secretary of the Co-ordination of Arauco-Malleco Communities in Conflict. The context of his detention is the repressive official policy of the Chilean government towards Mapuche people.

Chilean Natives to Fight for Better Lives

By Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, 6 June 1999. Impoverished Mapuche factions have launched a high-profile and occasionally violent protest movement in southern Chile, reoccupying parcels of land from farmers and lumber companies that acquired them in the years since the Chilean army finally subdued the Mapuche nation in 1881.

Mapuches threaten to go underground

A-Infos News Service Bulletin, June 1999. Alihuen Antileo of the Mapuche Community Association, a leader of the Mapuche indigenous movement in southern Chile, says a hard-line response by the government to their protests over land disputes will make the Mapuche shift their efforts underground.

Praise and Doubts for Gov't 'Indigenous Pact'

By Gustavo Gonzalez, IPS, 6 August 1999. Land disputes between indigenous groups and logging concerns and conflicts over energy projects such as dams have heightened. Frei's center-left government initiated a dialogue with Mapuche communities to resolve increasingly complex conflicts and fomenting development of native communities.

New wave of repression and arrests of the Mapuche in Chile

A-Infos News Service, August 1999. Arrests include the Mapuche lawyer, Jose Lincoqueo Huenuman, Head of the Legal Department of the Mapuche Inter-regional Council. The the laws from the Bio Bio River southwards and relating to indigenous people are negated by the 28 treaties and international conventions held between the Spanish Crown and the Mapuche nation.

Mapuche nation under attack!!

Mapuche International Link press release, 26 August 1999. The Chilean Government has broken the Agreement to Respect Citizens' Rights which it signed as recently as 5 August 99. The police detained 34 people from indigenous communities. 400 people have been imprisoned since the beginning of the year. This figure compares with the worst years of repression under the Pinochet regime (in English and Castellan).

Mapuche self determination within The framework of a Multinational State (speech extract)

By Pedro Cayaqueo, August 1999. That Chile represents a nationality is a lie, invented by those sectors of Chilean society who have an interest in the continued domination, exploitation and oppression of the indigenous nations upon which the Republic of Chile was founded (brief).

Mapuche's national march for recognition

A-Infos News Service, August 1999. During the seven days of walking, more than one hundred Mapuches have covered about 200 km from Temuco, Wallmapuche (Mapuche territory) walking towards Santiago with the aim of claiming the rights and fundamental liberties of the Mapuche people. The march is co-ordinated by the Consejo de Todas las Tierras.

Public Communique by the Mapuche coordination (Chile)

From Coordinadora Mapuche Arauco, 25 January 2000. The Mapuches live today under Chilean and Argentinian rule. They have been struggling for their rights for several hundred years and today they represent about 1+1/2 Million people. Recently, the Mapuches have been defending their land from hydroelectric dam megaprojects and forest clearcuts supported by the Chilean government and Foreign Multinationals.

Repressed Chilean Tribe Bounces Back with a Vengeance

By Kevn G. Hall, San Jose Mercury News, 18 February 2001. Indigenous leaders were branded leftists and Pinochet's forces brutally repressed native populations. They seek recognition as a distinct people with special land and water rights, greater autonomy and appropriate schooling taught in their language. They suffered from colonialist genocide and unjust seizures of land.