Public Statement by Werkén Daniel Melinao, Mapuche Political Prisoner, Chile

Source: http://meli.mapuches.org/spip.php?article3019
Monday June 17, 2013, by Commission of Communications / / Campaign to Free All Political Prisoners Mapuche

To our Mapuche People-Nation, the communities in resistance and the general public:

I, Daniel Melinao Melinao, Werkén of the Community Wente Winkul Mapu of Chequenco, sequestered by the Chilean state in the prison of Angol, declare as follows:

Kiñe: At nearly two months of my imprisonment, and without any real basis or slightest evidence that can link me to the death of Sergeant Albornoz, I reaffirm my innocence, as I stated from the outset, and in conjunction with our community, we provide all the collaborative effort to clarify the facts, occurred in one of the countless brutal attacks we have had to suffer by the repressive forces.

Epu: That after more than a year of research, with unlimited resources, anti-Mapuche prosecutor Chamorro has failed to deliver any new antecedent to justify my arrest as a co-author of the death of Sergeant Albornoz and even less to endorse the hunt undertaken against our peñi Eric Montoya, who is marked as the direct author of the death and even more, when all the elements continue to show that it was the result of crossfire between police themselves in their violent abandon.

Küla: Since the arrest warrant was issued against us two days after winning before the Supreme Court, for the third time, a mistrial of a case condemning pu peñi of the Community for attempted homicide of militarized police and that the pretrial detention was only achieved through deception and absurd lies presented by the prosecution and intelligence services before the court of Collipulli and the court of Temuco, it is proved that this persecution only responds to a political-Judicial strategy, which seeks, through imprisonment and persecution of Mapuche fighters, to try and stop our just struggle.
    
Meli: The ruthless repression against our Community we can only explain as a result of the recovery process of our territory, which we developed with the idea of ​​autonomy and self-management, without negotiations or accepting charities from those who have usurped our lands and despite my prison, of the unjust imprisonment of our peñi Gabriel Valenzuela on hunger strike in Chol-Chol, of the forced clandestinity of Eric Montoya and trials which start soon against other peñi, the Community has successfully completed planting on territories in productive recovery.

Kechu: As Werkén of the Community Wente Winkul Mapu, which for years has been enduring the repressive action of the state, with its aftermath of children, women and elderly people wounded by bullets, buckshot, homes destroyed and almost all members prosecuted in setups, I express our complete solidarity to the Chilean students who are suffering the brutal repression as well known and experienced by us.

Finally I invite the communities in resistance and all Mapuche and non-Mapuche supportive of our dignified struggle, to join us in the celebration of We Tripantu, to be held at the prison in Angol, on Saturday June 22 from 10am.

Immediate transfer of peñi Gabriel Valenzuela to Angol prison!
Freedom for all Mapuche political prisoners!
FOR THE TOTAL RECOVERY OF OUR TERRITORY ONWARD TO VICTORY ALWAYS

Daniel Melinao, Angol prison, June 16, 2013