The Chilean government is unwilling to establish a dialog with Mapuche communities

Source: http://paismapuche.org/?p=4924

Community Cacique José Guiñon: "The Chilean government is unwilling to establish a direct dialog with Mapuche communities"
Aug 15, 2012

Public statement of the Mapuche Community Cacique José Guiñon

Cacique José Guiñon The community of the town of Ercilla, went to La Moneda, to the central government, 
 in order to exhaust the last instances of dialog in which was sought to reiterate our territorial demands, delivering current testimony about the persecution and militarization that this process of demands has led to, besides providing key documents which show that our families and community belonged to which territories in demand.

This journey of the community Cacique José Guiñon, self-managed and carried out by about 35 people including spiritual authorities, children, women and pu peñi (brothers), was made in an effort to establish a direct dialog with the Chilean authorities claiming the word of dialog offered by the government with the various Mapuche communities.

 This visit makes it clear that the Chilean government is This visit makes it clear that the Chilean government lacks the will and even more the disposition for opening direct communication, negating any chance of meeting with higher authorities, to which end we attended 2 days straight looking for this possibility, there was not even the ability to directly deliver the letter to the minister for social development Joaquin Lavin.  
As a last resort we were offered to leave our letter with detailed information of our needs and requests to the undersecretary of the minister mentioned.

This refusal to dialog as well as the constant militarization of the different Mapuche communities and  in addition to the prosecution of our struggle such as the strong and unjust sentencing of two of our brothers in the community Wente Winkul Mapu, who were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, without police injured or even less dead, which is a demonstration of government power as a means of intimidation to communities in the process of reclaiming. What we believe is not more than just another political trial that seeks to repudiate and nullify our road to territorial recovery, self-determination and territorial autonomy.

We reiterate our support for the Mapuche community Wente Winkul Mapu, besides making a call to the public to show solidarity with this community and the various Mapuche communities victim of an oppressive state, for pursuing their land claims process.

Community Cacique José Guiñon
August 14, 2012