Coordinadora Arauco Malleco | |
---|---|
Leaders | Héctor Llaitul |
Dates of operation | 1997–present |
Active regions | La Araucania Region and Bio Bio Region |
Ideology | |
Allies | Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche |
Opponents |
Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) is a radical, [4] militant indigenist organization engaged in political violence [5] in pursuit of attaining an autonomous Mapuche state in the territory they describe as "Wallmapu".
Founded in 1998 in Tranaquepe, Chile, CAM arose from the revitalization of the Mapuche conflict that decade, motivated by the extreme poverty and discrimination [4] their ethnic group had to undergo for over a century, ever since the Occupation of Araucanía. CAM considers their own actions to be but fair self-defence amidst a struggle of national liberation, [6] and their politics combine Mapuche traditions, Western political thought and knowledge acquired through experience. [6]
CAM is responsible for several land occupations in the zones of Tirúa, Contulmo, Cañete and Temucuicui, and is known for resorting to arson [7] against logging trucks and rural estates operating or located within the territories they claim as their own. Although occasionally such attacks have affected civilians, they aim to damage the property of those who "have usurped their homeland". Most of their actions are carried out on the sly, but sometimes they have resulted in confrontations with the "Fuerzas Especiales" of Carabineros de Chile. CAM has also backed minor Mapuche communities in taking direct action against forest companies and landowners who exploit the region, by lending them paramilitary support – a way of exerting political pressure. [8]
On May 31, 2022, the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, with 66 votes in favor, 43 against and 13 abstentions, approved a resolution requesting the Chilean government to declare the CAM as an "illegal terrorist organization", as well Resistencia Mapuche Malleco, Resistencia Mapuche Lafkenche, and Weichán Auka Mapu. [9] [10] [11]
The Mapuche conflict continued in the 1990s following the return of democracy. [12] The conflict started in areas inhabited mostly by Mapuches like the vicinities of Purén, where the indigenous communities have been demanded that their ancestral lands, which were now the property of logging corporations, farming companies, and individuals, be turned over to them. [13] [14] At this time, forestry companies owned three times more ancestral Mapuche land than the actual Mapuche people. [15]
In 1993, the Chilean government passed the Indigenous Peoples Act which recognized Mapuche participation, land, cultural, and development rights. [15] Additionally, the law created the National Indigenous Development Corporation (CONADI), an indigenous governing body founded to help support the development of indigenous peoples in Chile. [15] While the law gave substantial promise of reconciliation and justice to the Mapuche people, in reality, the act continues to be extremely underwhelming and disappointing to most Mapuche people in contemporary society. [15]The construction of the Ralco Hydroelectric Plant, which displaced indigenous burial sites, was a breaking point in state-Mapuche relations, contributing to the formation of the Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) in 1997 following the burning of three trucks belonging to Forestal Arauco. This event marked the beginning of the violence in the Southern Macrozone of Chile (also known as Araucanía conflict) and a turning point in the development of the Mapuche autonomist political movement. [16] Since then, violence has progressively increased and expanded to the neighboring regions of Biobío and Los Lagos. [17]
In 1996, some Mapuche communities formed the Lafkenche Territorial Coordinator. In 1998, the conflict of Traiguén arose followed by the later realization of a meeting of communities and a Guillatún. In this meeting the communities in conflict of Arauco and Lumaco participated, the Mapuche Coordinator of Santiago and the Mapuche Organization Meli Wixan Mapu of Santiago. Leaders from communities of Collipulli also joined. During this meeting, the idea of a new meeting in Tranaquepe was raised, only with the Mapuche communities in conflict. In a moment of the meeting, the idea of forming the Coordinadora that they named "Mapuche Coordinator of Communities in Conflict Arauco Malleco" arose.
The first attack perpetrated by the group was the 1st of December 1997, when in the area of Lumaco, three trucks belonging to the company Forestal Arauco were intercepted by community members who would later be known as members of the CAM.This action created a new subjectivity in the Mapuche militancy, modifying its way of doing politics, detonating in a conflict against the security forces. [18] [19]
According to historian Jorge Pinto Rodríguez, the organization is the entity that up to 2017 has led the most violent mobilization of Mapuche people: "It has claimed the figure of the warrior or weichafe -in Mapudungun-," he said. Beyond a specific event, Pinto indicated that the beginnings of this organization are associated with a "lack of response from the State in response to the demands made to mitigate the effects of forestry, mining and hydroelectric projects in La Araucanía or Wallmapu ("ancestral territory" in mapudungún), he explained. "They are opposed to a state that they call colonialist and capitalist, and emerge from a stage, at the end of the nineties, of indigenous protests throughout the continent, they take the flag in Chile," said Pinto. [20]
On the morning of August 12 of 2009, it is alleged by Chilean officials that about 80 Mapuches entered the country estate "San Sebastián", located between Collipulli and Angol, and occupied it. The occupation was made in response to their unanswered request to buy the San Sebastián estate by authorities. Sergio González Jarpa, agriculture businessman and owner of the estate, requested to the court of Angol the ouster of the occupants. Carabineros gathered special forces from Araucanía Region and flew in a GOPE unit from Santiago. The ouster begun at around 14.00. As result one young Mapuche Jaime Mendoza Collio was shot dead and one carabinero was injured in the leg. [21] The leader of Mapuche organization Consejo de Todas las Tierras Aucán Huilcamán strongly condemned the actions of the police and called the killing an extrajudicial execution. [22] Later on the Legal Medical Service of Chile stated that the dead Mapuche had been shot from behind in the back. [23] Investigations by Policía de Investigaciones have shown that the Mapuche who was shot, Jaime Mendoza Collío, did not have remains of gunpowder on his hands as Carabineros had suggested.
The attacks of 2009 again brought the CAM issue to the level of government. The Alianza por Chile claimed that the Concertación governments have not done enough to arrest the authors of the attacks and protect private property. On August 19, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet condemned an incident between minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma (DC) and the opposition deputy Gonzalo Arenas (UDI), where Arenas threw an alleged copy of the pardon of former CAM leader Víctor Ancalaf on Pérez Yoma's face. [24] Victor Ancalaf had served 5 years of a 10-year prison sentence for terrorist crimes, which Ancalaf vehemently denies.
The gravest case to which CAM has been linked to is the murder of Werner Luchsinger and Vivianne Mackay, a couple of wealthy farmers who died in an arson fire in their country house located in Vilcún, in 2013. After being found by the police that night – bullet-wounded and less than a mile away from the Luchsinger's farm – machi Celestino Córdova was held responsible for the attack and later judged and condemned for the crimes. He is still serving the sentence and is the only person to have ever been formally charged for the deaths of the Luchsinger and Mackey. CAM claims that he is innocent and was used as a scapegoat, and as such considers himself to be a political prisoner. [25]
In September 2017, the prosecutor of La Araucanía, Roberto Garrido, confirmed that there was a connection between members of the Weichán Auka Mapu and the Luchsinger-Mackay case. This was due to ongoing investigations showing the involvement of at least 25 individuals in the attack. The prosecutor confirmed that the investigations were still ongoing. [26] [27]
Latest evidence, such as their leaders being invited into Caracas and Colombian authorities investigations, has established links between the organization, the government of president Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, [28] and the FARC guerrillas. [29]
The Mapuche also known as Araucanians are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who share a common social, religious, and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage as Mapudungun speakers. Their homelands once extended from Choapa Valley to the Chiloé Archipelago and later spread eastward to Puelmapu, a land comprising part of the Argentine pampa and Patagonia. Today the collective group makes up over 80% of the indigenous peoples in Chile and about 9% of the total Chilean population. The Mapuche are concentrated in the Araucanía region. Many have migrated from rural areas to the cities of Santiago and Buenos Aires for economic opportunities, more than 92% of the Mapuches are from Chile.
The Araucanía, La Araucanía Region is one of Chile's 16 first-order administrative divisions, and comprises two provinces: Malleco in the north and Cautín in the south. Its capital and largest city is Temuco; other important cities include Angol and Villarrica.
The Biobío River is the second largest river in Chile. It originates at Icalma and Galletué lakes in the Andes and flows 380 kilometres (236 mi) to the Gulf of Arauco on the Pacific Ocean.
The Occupation of Araucanía or Pacification of Araucanía (1861–1883) was a series of military campaigns, agreements and penetrations by the Chilean army and settlers into Mapuche territory which led to the incorporation of Araucanía into Chilean national territory. Pacification of Araucanía was the expression used by the Chilean authorities for this process. The conflict was concurrent with Argentine campaigns against the Mapuche (1878–1885) and Chile's wars with Spain (1865–1866) and with Peru and Bolivia (1879–1883).
Indigenous peoples in Chile or Native Chileans form about 13% of the total population of Chile. According to the 2017 census, almost 2,200,000 people declare having indigenous origins. Most Chileans are of partially indigenous descent; however, indigenous identification and its legal ramifications are typically reserved to those who self-identify with and are accepted within one or more indigenous groups.
The Mapuche conflict involves indigenous Mapuche communities, historically known as the Araucanians, located in Araucanía and nearby regions of Chile and Argentina.
Forestry is one of the main economic sectors of Chile, representing 14% of the value of the country's total exports. This places the forestry sector in Chile as the second largest export sector behind copper mining. From 1970 to 2005 planted forest surface in Chile grew from 300,000 ha to more than 2.07 million ha. In 2019 Chile had slightly more than 2,3 million ha of forest plantations of which 1,3 million ha were Pinus radiata and 0,9 million ha were of Eucalyptus globulus and Eucalyptus nitens. In 2006 70% of Chile's forestry production went to export, and the industry employed more than 150,000 workers. By 2020 people employed in the sector were down to 112,200.
Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche is an indigenous organization advocated to the creation of an autonomous Mapuche state in Araucanía, which is, they say, the revindication and recovery of former Mapuche lands. They are mostly renowned for their violent methods, often recurring to arson and poaching and armed attacks against Argentine National Gendarmerie. It operates in the Patagonia region of Argentina and Chile, seeking to secede territories of both countries to create an independent Wallmapuche country for the Mapuche nation. It is associated with the Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco, considered a terrorist organization by the Chilean government.
Camilo Marcelo Catrillanca Marín was a Mapuche farmer from Temucuicui in Chile who was shot to death by the Chilean police force under suspicious circumstances. The incident led to protests against police violence, and occurred in the broader context of the ongoing conflict over Mapuche civil rights.
Pedro César Cayuqueo Millaqueo is a Chilean journalist and activist of indigenous Mapuche descent involved in the Mapuche conflict.
Weichán Auka Mapu (WAM) is a Mapuche armed and revolutionary organization that operates mainly in southern Chile, being a supporter of armed struggle through arson attacks, sabotage actions and clashes with firearms against police officers, in order to achieve full autonomy for the Mapuche people.
The Severino di Giovanni Antipatriot Band was an urban guerrilla in Santiago, responsible for several arson attacks and explosives. The name was inspired by Severino di Giovanni, an Italian anarchist, journalist, worker and poet who died in Buenos Aires in 1931.
The Council of All Lands or Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam (AWNg) is an indigenist separatist organization that defines itself as aimed to create a "Mapuche state" in Chile and Argentina in the territories defined as "Wallmapu" by them. Its leader is the "werkén" Aucán Huilcamán. The organization has its roots in the Commission for the 500 years of resistance, created in 1989 as a splinter group of ADMAPU, whose members had become critical of ADMAPU. The commission subsequently changed name to Consejo de Todas las Tierras in 1990.
Among the indigenous Mapuche people of Chile, there are those that practice traditional polygamy. In modern Chile polygamy has no legal recognition. This puts women whose marriages to their husbands are not legally recognized at a disadvantage in relation to the legal wife who is, in terms of securing inheritance. Polygamy is much less common today in comparison with the time preceding the Occupation of Araucanía (1861–1883), when the traditional Mapuche homeland was brought under control of the Chilean government. It survives as a chiefly rural practice, but has also been reported in the low-income peripheral communities of Santiago. Wives who share the same husband are often relatives, such as sisters, who live in the same community. According to hearsay, polyandry among the Mapuche is reputed to exist at least historically, in which case the husbands may have been brothers, but no documentation exists attesting to this phenomenon. It is also in contradiction to the renewal of the warrior ethos (weichan) promoted by militant Mapuche organizations such as Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco.
Eugenio Sebastián Nain Caniumil was a Chilean policeman and secondary corporal who was shot to death by an unidentified armed group in the Padre Las Casas commune. His death occurred during the social context of the Araucanía Conflict and the Chilean social outburst.
Wallmapu is the word in the Mapuche language to say "Universe" or "set of surrounding lands", currently used by some historians to describe the historical territory inhabited by the Mapuche people of southern South America. The term was coined in the early 1990s by Indigenist groups but gained traction in the 2000s as the Mapuche conflict in Araucanía intensified. Some view the Wallmapu as being composed of two main parts Ngulumapu in the west and Puelmapu in the east, with the southern part of Ngulumapu being known as Futahuillimapu.
Héctor Javier Llaitul Carrillanca is a Chilean of Mapuche-Huilliche origin, known as the leader of the armed organization Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) participant in the Mapuche conflict, where he is referred to as "Comandante Héctor" or "El Negro." He has been charged with crimes such as incitement to violence, use of firearms, violent occupation, theft of timber, and attacks against authorities.
The Association for Peace and Reconciliation in Araucanía is a civic movement in the Araucanía Region that condemns arson attacks associated with the regional conflict and advocates for the defense of farmers and forestry workers affected by attacks directly related to the Mapuche conflict. The organization has been described by media as far-right for its anti-indigenist rhetoric. The organization is also critical of Mapuche community members in the area, whom it has described as "violentists", and according to its vice president, the organization "documents on social media the attacks by Mapuches against the rest of the Araucanians"
The Luchsinger-Mackay case is a Chilean legal case concerning the murder of an elderly couple, Werner Luchsinger and Vivianne Mackay, in 2013 in their house in Vilcún, Araucanía Region.
Nuestra lucha es contra el sistema capitalista, es una lucha antiimperialista, antioligárquica, nacionalitaria y revolucionaria
Nuestra lucha por la independencia, por la autodeterminación es tomar el planteamiento histórico de nuestro pueblo para mantenerse y seguir siendo pueblo