lo-de-alla.org

((La Tercera photo))

[Translation of an article from La Tercera of Santiago for March 16. See original here and related articles here and here.]

by L. Ferraro y S. Labrín

After one of the coldest days in Aysén, following the breakdown of negotiations between the government and the Social Movement, La Moneda [the presidency] decided yesterday to invoke the State Security Law and to bring charges against some 20 participants in the violent incidents that have taken place in the region. These include the burning of a bus and a water cannon belonging to the Carabineros [the militarized national police], as well as the stoning of a police airplane that was to transport agents injured during the protests. (more…)

((El Mostrador photo))

Lorena Fríes says they were aimed directly at demonstrators

[Translation of an article from El Mostrador of Santiago for March 8. See original here and related article here.]

The director of the National Human Rights Institute has submitted to the Human Rights Committee of the Chamber of Deputies a report drawn up by professionals in the Institute who were in the Aysén region between February 22 and February 25 as part of the organization’s Police Violence Observation Program.

Fríes stated that, in drawing up the report, “We were able to confirm a disproportionate use of anti-riot shotguns, which apparently are not used to warn but are used directly on the bodies of the demonstrators, which is reflected in the large proportion of persons wounded; more than 50 percent of those arrested have superficial wounds from the pellets that are fired with these shotguns.” (more…)

((El Clarín photo))

[Translation of an article from El Clarín for Feburary 24. See original here and related article here. Aysén, in southern Chile, is one of the 15 administrative subdivisions, or regions, into which Chile is divided. Each region is headed by an intendant appointed by the president. Regions are further divided into provinces, of which there are 54, which are headed by governors, also appointed by the president. Puerto Aysén, the site of recent demonstrations, is a city in the region of Aysén. The sparsely inhabited region is physically isolated from the rest of the country, making the cost of living high and resulting in neglect by the national government and poorly developed infrastructure. Plans to build hydroelectric plants and transmission lines in the pristine region have in recent times met determined opposition from environmentalists and residents of the area.]

New confrontations were seen Wednesday evening at the  Ibáñez bridge in [Puerto] Aysén, where demonstrators are demanding better living conditions in the region. The confrontations are in addition to barricades set up by people in several other towns in favor of the demands of the citizen movement. (more…)

((Clarín photo))

Police attack after fire in Araucanía

[Translation of an article from the Venezuelan website TeleSur for January 8. See original here and related articles here, here, here and here.]

The Chilean carabineros [militarized national police] early Sunday morning raided the Cacique José Guiñón community, in the commune of Ercilla, province of Malleco (in the Araucanía region), after a fire in a rural parcel of land that is considered a Mapuche conflict zone.

“We are in the commune of Ercilla, 100 kilometers north of Temuco, where close to 100 members of the Carabineros de Chile proceeded to raid the Cacique José Guiñón community early this morning,” reported César Parra, the TeleSur correspondent in the commune. (more…)