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This communiqué comes from the Malleco Mapuche communities in resistance and rejects the ongoing politics of division and cooptation used by the forestry industry to fulfill their capitalist desires of territorial plunder. The original in Spanish was published by Radio Kurruf and can be found here.

Mapuche Public Communiqué

In light of the unfortunate events that have occurred in recent weeks in the zone of Ercilla, Wallmapu, the Malleco Mapuche communities in resistance declare the following:

As Malleco Mapuche communities in resistance, we hold responsible the forestry company Mininco for the harmful intervention and the consequent situation of tension and violence in the Mapuche communities in the zone of Malleco. They have generated a climate of hostility against Mapuche communities who directly develop territorial claims and territorial control against the transnational company. The forestry companies have always utilized the economic shortcomings of our people as a means to plant false expectations in benefit of the interests of the forestry monopoly. In the same way, we regret that some Mapuche leaders who at one time embraced the just struggle for the recuperation of our territory, today support and protect the interests of the forestry companies. They even attack their own people, making use of the weapons provided by the forestry industry to act under the logic of anti-Mapuche paramilitarism. Many Mapuche brothers have been deceived by “capitalist development”, which this time has been presented in Mapuche territory as “Plan Impulso”. This is a maneuver and political strategy that for years has been developed by the big forestry industry, companies, landowners and the different governments of the Chilean state. We publicly denounce the strategy of the forestry company Mininco in the Malleco zone and other part of Wallmapu, seeking to disarticulate the Mapuche movement, presenting a group of Mapuches as entrepreneurs with the full backing of the government, and the others as radicals working against progress. In this way, the forest company insures its production and generates serious conflicts to divide our people and stop the Mapuche resistance and the expulsion of forestry companies from Mapuche territory. In light of the above, we make clear that we do not share the forms of development that the company Mininco seeks to impose and which are defended by José Cariqueo, Victor Ancalaf and Aniceto Norin. Their judgments of Mapuche development are motivated more by their personal ambition. Their political position lacks legitimacy in the face of its inconsistency with the Mapuche cause that once welcomed them and showed them respect. As Mapuche communities who have openly declared themselves against the integrationist politics of the Chilean government, we have always sought not to confuse our people and not to profit from the pain of those who have had to pay with their lives for the efforts of our struggle. We consider that the best form of remembering the martyrs of the struggle is strengthening Mapuche organization, establishing new territories through territorial control. Relying on the offer of dialogue of the current government is political naivety. It is inconceivable to believe that our enemies will provide us the means to achieve the collapse of their own economic monopoly. Our forces are today concentrated in developing new processes of territorial vindication. Consequently, we have decided to take advantage of the right to political self-determination, to move in that direction and to achieve in the near future, political, territorial, cultural and economic autonomy, without the yoke of the Chilean state. There are many leaders that have been corrupted and have set out to work for the enemy like Aniceto Norín, Victor Ancalaf and José Cariqueo. The latter is assembling the Mapuche trucker’s guild, AGRETRAN MAPU KIÑE WUN, which provides services to the forestry company Mininco, lending itself to the service of the large forestry companies. Through AGRETRAN, Mininco forestry secures and protects their economic interests, using the Lonko José Cariqueo and his direct family as guardians of the properties, goons that work against all those who resist the policies of forestry. This unfortunately ended with the death of two of his children, who were great Weichafes in the past, but that ended up working and defending the forestry industry, attacking with bullets those who were not in agreement with these policies. Both had work contracts with the forestry company Mininco for the services of “security” they provided. We call on our people to be aware of the strategies that the large forestry companies and government are using, and to not be deceived by the false promises of development. Capitalist development only serves the large companies and leaves the grand majority in poverty. It is antagonistic to Mapuche development, since ours is community development for all…

MALLECO MAPUCHE COMMUNITIES IN RESISTANCE

Wallmapu Malleco

March 2019