Chile: Mapuche prisoners end hunger strike
- Demonstration in support of hunger strikers — El Mostrador photo
[Translation of an article from El Mostrador of Santiago de Chile for October 9. See original article here and related article here.]
The last ten Mapuches who had been on hunger strike in the Angol prison decided last night to end their fast, the Secretary General of the Presidency, Cristián Larroulet, and representatives of the comuneros have announced.
The measure was taken after intense negotiations carried out in the past hours by representatives of the executive and of the strikers.
Larroulet met Friday with the three Mapuche prisoners who were on hunger strike in the Argol prison and with the seven who are in the Victoria hospital because of weakness.
“The measures taken with the aim of ending the hunger strike have concluded satisfactorily,” the secretary reported as he read a statement indicating that “this decision will be distributed on the 11th by all the traditional authorities of the Mapuche people and civil society who have shared their concern.”
Mapuche spokesman Jorge Huenchullán told Radio Bío Bío, “We consider that some gestures by the government gave motives so that our brothers would end the strike.”
Huenchullán added that although “the agreement is not totally satisfactory to the Mapuche people” the measure was adopted for humanitarian reasons.
Thus ends the hunger strike begun by a group of prisoners last July 12, which prisoners in other jails in the south of the country later joined.
The comuneros, who consider themselves political prisoners, demand that an anti-terrorism law not be enforced against them, that they not be subjected to trial twice, in both civilian and military courts, and that anonymous witnesses not be used in their trials.
The announcement of the end of the hunger strike coincides with an announcement made by Minister of the Interior Rodrigo Hinzpeter on the government’s withdrawal of charges made against the comuneros under the anti-terrorism law.
The process of modifying the charges so the Mapuches can be tried solely under common law began a week ago, when 28 of a total of 38 comuneros who were on hunger strike agreed to renounce the use of force.
To resolve the conflict, the government employed the mediation of the Catholic church, as well as establishing a forum for dialogue to deal in depth with the demands of the Mapuche people, made up of some 600,000 persons, 3.5 percent of the Chilean pupulation.
In this regard, President Sebastián Piñera said Friday that the government is developing the so-called Plan Araucanía “to supply tools to the Mapuche people so they can stand on their own and, with their own effort, talent and work, reach levels of progress that they have not known until now.”
“We are going to change history; beginning now we are going to stop turning our backs on our indigenous peoples,” Piñera stressed.
Tags: anti-terrorism law, Chile, hunger strike, Mapuche, prisoners, Sebastian Pinera