Chile, December 23 - ANTIPRISON AGITATION IN SOLIDARITY WITH PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE

source: culmine

CALL TO SOLIDARITY ACTION WITH THE ANARCHIST AND REBEL PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE IN THE VARIOUS PRISONS OF THE COUNTRY THURSDAY, 23 DECEMBER

BECAUSE YOU DON'T HUMANIZE JAILS YOU DESTROY THEM. PRISONERS IN WAR IN THE STREETS

NEWS, ACTION, SAMBOTAZ, SOLIDARITY, LETTERS FROM ANARCHISTS COMRADES IN CHILI

$ hile - Adjudication bombing of the department of Carabineros computer technology in Independencia

culmine
sysiphus-angrynewsfromaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/hile-adjudication-bombing-of-department.html

Santiago, Chile - Two bombs during the night

culmine
sysiphus-angrynewsfromaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/culmine-chilean-media20.html

Santiago, Chile - Bombing against a branch of the State Bank http://sysiphus-angrynewsfromaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/santiago-chile-bombing-againsta-branch.html

Santiago, Chile - On what happened on December 15

culmine

http://sysiphus-angrynewsfromaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/santiag-chile-on-what-happened-on.html

Santiago, Chile - A communique from anarchist prisoner Mónica Caballero on the situation in the extermination centres

culmine
sysiphus-angrynewsfromaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/santiago-chile-communique-from.html

Santiago, Chile - Serious incidents inside the ex-Penitentiarysysiphus-angrynewsfromaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/santiago-chile-serious-incidents-inside.html

Santiago, Chile - Attack on mobile police checkpoint

lahaine.org from http://sysiphus-angrynewsfromaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/santiago-chile-attack-on-police-mobile.html

11/12/2010 - About what happened at the end of the march against the prison ...
After the pain and helplessness at the death of 81 prisoners in an extermination centre because of a fire produced and spread by the undignified conditions in which the State keeps under constant punishment and torture of thousands of exploited people who do not fit into the parametres of civilized society (obey / work / consume). The State and the Gendarmerie are truly responsible for the deaths of prisoners in the jail of San Miguel and all the imprisoned persons tortured and killed behind its bars.
It is for this horrible everyday slaughter that no cop should go unpunished, not that they should be tried and convicted, but because they must be avenged by the thousands of uprooted lives and for many that are they are willing to uproot.
This is how once the march against the prison ended, peacefully, a group moved to another point in the centre of Santiago, where stones, bottles and paving stones attacked a mobile police checkpoint smashing their windows and damaging the car body, from which a stunned official attempted, revolver in hand, to catch their attackers but without success.
"Jails cover up the miseries of this unjust society ... the prosecutors, policemen and judges responsible for this slaughter." Families outside the prison in San Miguel, the day of the fire. From Mexico to Switzerland, from Argentina to Greece, solidarity with all prisoners!
Offenders for assembling bombs in the street!
Revenge against the exploiters and their guardians!

The Chilean miners: fake solidarity in the land of "every man for himself"

Like millions of others, I was absolutely delighted to see the trapped miners in the San José mine in Chile getting out alive from their stressful, claustrophobic confinement which they'd been in for almost 70 days as a result of negligence on the part of the mining companies. I could only be thrilled to see this terrible story of grief and suffering come to a happy ending and see tears exchanged for bursts of laughter. But at the same time, mixed with my joy at seeing these 33 condemned men return to life, I still had a feeling that was a mixture of revulsion and anger at the show put on by the very people who had dug what could have been these men's graves. I have no wish to be a killjoy, but when the natural euphoria that has engulfed the country calms down, a great many questions will need to be asked.The first is that although the government is blatantly attempting to reap political credit for this miracle of the rescue of 33 men who were buried alive under tons of rock, 700 metres below the surface, the reality is that they never should have been buried in the first place! The mine had been closed for safety reasons and was reopened precisely because of the government policy that sacrifices workers' safety, workers' lives for the benefit of the entrepreneurial class. Moreover, at a time when both the government and the bosses were taking these men for dead, it was the tenacity of the miners themselves and their workmates who provided information and the benefit of their experience, that were responsible for keeping the search alive until they were found. The miners are alive not thanks to the Piñera government, but to the perseverance of the workers who pressured them into making the rescue a reality, and thanks to the expertise of the miners themselves who knew how deal with their situation underground. If it had been down to the government and the bosses, these miners would have been forgotten and abandoned like hundreds of other workers who every year are forgotten and abandoned when they die in accidents, the vast majority of which are preventable.
But once the cameras arrived, the indifference was immediately forgotten, replaced by an almost feverish concern; the country and its ruling classes were struck by "Telethon syndrome", all smiles for the cameras and hugs for the victims. But this is the sort of solidarity that tricks us, because it makes us forget that we live in a country where there is very, very little solidarity, a country where the "every man for himself" mentality was imposed on the inhabitants through the blood and fire of nearly four decades of rampant neoliberalism. It is fake solidarity because it is used to their own advantage - to increase their popularity ratings, for the sake of propaganda and marketing, to make political capital. Apple will give them I-pods, Farkas gives them 5 million pesos each [1], some have offered holidays in the Greek islands, others the chance to see Real Madrid or Manchester United play, a third-class politician (who, incidentally, is the president) poses for pictures with them... everyone using them quite blatanly as propaganda for their product, sports club, country or government. I can't stop feeling a bad taste in my mouth when I see how they are exploiting them in such a way.
This is the extent to which the manipulation reaches, with Piñera calling on the world to remember Chile as the country that rescues and forget about the Pinochet dictatorship - which made him a billionaire, with wealth far beyond what the vast majority of people can even imagine. Think how the world would react if German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked the world to forget about Hitler. I cannot help feeling deep disgust at the vile opportunism of it all. But I'm not surprised. For better or for worse, it is part of the plans by the ruling block to wipe out the "original sin" of our exemplary democracy, to forget the authoritarian-dictatorial "slip up" that drowned the hopes of three generations of Chileans in blood, part of the imposed collective amnesia by this country's propertied class. All this was was another opportunity to flog what they have been flogging us for the past twenty years.
This is a country which lives on fiction, where the rescue becomes a form of reality show, with of course no shortage of spicy stories about lovers and other scandals to divert the hoi polloi. A reality show where the reasons for this tragedy are conveniently forgotten, where the reason these men were entombed goes unmentioned - an economic model which seeks the maximum profit for the least possible cost. It is an economic model which puts subcontractors, workers in conditions of terrible danger, in the mines and other places, making them carry out risky work which in many cases costs them their lives, while their employers amass enormous fortunes.
This is only a fictitious solidarity, solidarity which exists in front of the cameras, for show, but which disappears in the anonymous day-to-day interaction of our grey cities. This fake solidarity is handed out like aspirin to feed the inflated image we have of ourselves. But above all it is fictitious solidarity because this solidarity between buried and buriers disappears amid a sea of inequality in a country where neither the society as a whole nor the economy holds solidarity as its guiding principle. A quick example: while the miners are being offered millions in contracts by all and sundry, the company is refusing to pay them for the time they spent underground. Now with the miners themselves rolling in money, they are probably not too concerned about receiving their miserable wages, but there are thousands of other, less fortunate workers who are languishing in one of the country's Workers' Hospitals, to the indifference of their companies, without any wages as long as they remain unable to work due to injuries they got on the job. That's capitalism...
But let's not forget that 439 workers died in workplace accidents in this country in 2009, and where was the solidarity for them? Where were all the efforts to save them from their mines or from all the various workplaces they died in? For them there was only the indifferent gaze of the authorities or the criminal entrepreneurial class. 439 human beings with the same abilities, the same right to live, laugh and enjoy the good things of life as the 33 miners brought back from the dead.
So that's why I have all these conflicting feelings about the rescue and the coverage of it. Because beyond the happiness we all feel for the good fortune these workers have had, escaping with their lives, beyond the plastic, showbusiness smiles, beyond all the presidential visits and hugs, beyond all the "generosity" being paraded before the cameras by certain companies (or more accurately, by their marketing departments), I still think of the thousands of unfortunates who are sacrificed year after year on the altar of profit, whose fate is only met with indifference. I cannot help thinking that if those same workers had organised themselves to fight against the dangerous conditions they were (and still are) forced to work in, if they had resisted allowing themselves to be buried, they would have been treated like criminals. I cannot help thinking that in a country which boasts of its solidarity, at that very moment there were also 32 Mapuche political prisoners, some under the age of 18, who were considered "terrorists" and who were left to waste away on a hunger strike which was hidden from the eyes of the national and international press, and who are being treated in a disgracefully paternalistic way by the government. I cannot help thinking of all this, despite my immense joy at seeing the miners returning to us.
What a shitty, hypocritical country.
José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
15 October 2010

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Note:
1. Leonardo Farkas, a billionaire businessman and mine owner known for his appearances on TV Telethons and handing out money on the street. 5 million Chilean pesos equals approximately US$10,000.

Statement from Prisoners of the Chilean State Inside Maximum Security.

The public opinion of our friends and family members and all those who dream of an egalitarian society free of oppression:Since the 12 of October, 31 prisoners have initiated an indefinite mobilization demanding an improvement in the daily conditions and visitation inside the prison which physically and psychologically impair whoever is inside these torture centers. We aim to end the familiar logic of the prison guards which focuses on mistreating and humiliating all the thousands of poor who are forced to survive in prison and their friends and families who visit them. This gives us a shared camaraderie that enables dialogue and strengthens conviction, as well as a commitment to unity between social and political prisoners that can begin to attack the jailers. The teeth and blood of the pobladores is part of those voices that bit by bit break the censorship of information, taking our demands to their own centers of power, shitting on their faces. The desperation of the state’s repressive agents has sought to sew a weed of conflict between social and political prisoners tin order to maintain control, but “the fearless are living,” and with them the anti-authoritarians, both aware of the games of the prison system, and its routine assassination. We stand together in the dignified battle underneath the Maximum Security model and the injustice of the prison system. Neither the threats nor the punishments like those given on Tuesday, the 19th of October to Freddy Moraga Soto on the fourth floor at the hands of Cabo Flores can destroy the spirit of the poblador behind bars.

Along with a greeting, a brave and selfless response and in the struggle to each of the men and women who have given us their support, we want to hug our families, kiss our partners, children and loved ones. We invite them to continue spreading this mobilization in every space we move, making propaganda a weapon through posters, pamphlets and murals.
Never stop the cry for freedom!!
No more imprisonment of the poor in marches, rallies, schools, and poblaciones.
Create unity among all prisoners and their families. Support an environment without authority, faces looking at us because we are all worth something and together we make the powerful tremble. The prison was made by the rich to hide the injustice of the capitalist system. No more prisons for the poor!!!!
Social and political prisoners in struggle.
Maximum security prison October 22, 2010

Basque writer Asel Luzarraga deported from Chile

24 09 2010 From Hommodolars Contrainformación (September 22, 2010) via CALPU (September 17, 2010):

Conviction requires Mapuche sympathizer to leave country despite all evidence pointing to political set-up
By Hedoi Etxarte
On December 31, 2009, Basque writer/translator Asel Luzarraga was arrested in Chile at his home in Padre de Las Casas. At the time, he was accused of four attacks carried out between December 2008 and December 2009. From the beginning, Luzarraga denied any connection to the attacks. In fact, his passport showed that he was out of the country on the dates of two of the attacks. Nevertheless, Judge Alejandra García sentenced him to preventive detention for the duration of the investigation.
Then the charges were modified: The Prosecutor’s office stopped investigating Luzarraga as the perpetrator and instead charged him with possession of explosive material. Found in his home—without a single fingerprint—were an empty fire extinguisher, less than ten grams of black powder, a fuse, and adhesive tape. Luzarraga spent forty-two days in preventive detention and was under house arrest until his sentencing at trial on September 7. The following day, according to regional newspaper El Austral, Cautín governor Miguel Mellado said that he would be appealing “to the International Police to take this character and drop him off at the airport so he can leave the country.” Based on his statement, it’s clear that Luzarraga’s prison sentence was symbolic and that the ultimate objective was to deny the renewal of his residence permit.
Luzarraga will have to leave Chile by September 22, fifteen days after sentencing. In determining the sentence, the judges considered the chemical evidence submitted on behalf of the defense by Analab and Temuco Catholic University to be insufficient.
Police also confirmed the detection of nitrate ions at Luzarraga’s home. Their evidence indicated the presence of nitrate ions in the city water supply, especially in the water and shampoo at Luzarraga’s home. According to a statement made by Luzarraga’s attorney Jaime Madariaga to the Autonomous University of Chile television station, that “explains why they found nitrate ions on his back.” In the same statement to the media, Madariaga added that the data invalidated what “the Attorney General’s office had made the public believe.” The Prosecutor’s office was also unable to explain the absence of fingerprints on the material seized from Luzarraga’s home.
El Austral took the defense attorney’s statement after sentencing: “It’s hard to feel satisfied when you know an innocent man has been convicted, but he certainly won’t have to go to prison, and that’s without doubt a relief to us.” He added: “As a society we are even weaker, because any one of us can be the victim of someone who leaves a bag containing drugs or a fire extinguisher at our house, and then be convicted regardless of the absence of any fingerprints, e-mail, or anything.”
No fingerprints
In the Basque newspaper Deia, Luzarraga maintained his certitude that neither he, his girlfriend, nor anyone who knows them could have left behind the empty fire extinguisher, fuses, and black powder that were found at his home. He reiterated how strange it was that there were no fingerprints and that the supermarket bag containing everything was missing. The writer had no hesitation in saying that it was all a set-up designed to persecute him politically.

Stop the press! Pinochet is uncomfortable in his grave

Announcement of the Translation Counter-Information Network contrainfo.espiv.net in solidarity with all the politically persecuted by the regime of Chile, for the concentration of the 24th of September, out of the Embassy of Chile, in the context of the international solidarity day with the political prisoners in Chile. In 2009, the chilean state commenced an intensive campaign of persecution against squatters and Mapuche natives, aiming at their extinction. In perfect cooperation with the judicial system, the goal was the same in both cases: accusations of terrorism. …the “Bomb Case” spectacle… Early in the morning of August 15 an incredibly extensive and spectacular police operation took place in various Chilean cities. Police forces invaded squats, social spaces and houses, arresting plenty of people and destroying everything in their way.  This new device of the chilean state is named “Bomb Case”. The new operation of the chilean police intends to find a convenient victim to charge with the 23 bombings that occured in Santiago.  Seven anarchist revolutionaries are imprisoned in the dungeons of the bourgeois democracy at a state of absolute exclusion, facing heavy charges, forged tirades and fake witness testimonies. The chilean press has been laying for months the foundations for certain arrests, by targeting certain spaces and people. Let’s not forget that in 2009  the Basque anarchist writer and musician Asel Luzzaraga who was accused of various bombings, was sentenced to house arrest and finally deported by the chilean state. His only involvement with the aforementioned bombings was his publicly expressed solidarity to the Mapuche people, mainly through texts.  …and that’s not all… The chilean state and pinochet’s dictatorship (who have found a worthy successor in the face of the current bourgeois democracy) have accomplished everything that the inkas and the spanish conquistadors have failed at. Repression, murder, trials based on fabricated tirades, social seclusion, prohibition to use their language, destruction of their social structures etc.  The draining of the Mapuche land and their displacement from grounds that they belong to, for centuries is embedded within a general framework of state strategies that aims at the eradication of every internal enemy in order to restore “national unity” and promote the application of the western “growth” paradigm free of all internal conflicts. The media have once again taken up an important role in this purge through slandering, concealing the role of their corrupted government, the multinational lumber and mining companies who have infringed the Mapuche native ground and are shamelessly preying on it, having as a result the irreversible destruction of the environment as well as the implicit action of mercenaries who have repeatedly attacked Mapuche grounds, burning occupied areas. The concealment of a text composed by 33 miners which pledged solidarity to the Mapuche people exemplifies the media’s filthy role.  The indigenous Mapuche people claim the self-evident: recursion of their land and respect to their right of self-determination. The Mapuche constitute a national liberation movement founded on a national concept different to the classic western bipolar construction of the Nation-State, since their worldview is pertinent to the concept of a stateless nation. During the last few years, this – akin to libertarian views – notion, this worldview and the social tradition of the people have established a fixed link of mutual aid between the Mapuche and the Chilean anarchist movement. There is no doubt that the Mapuche have been criminalized, trialed and sentenced for their thoughts, not for their acts. For more than two and a half months, 35 imprisoned Mapuche are on hunger strike (most of them sentenced according to the anti-terrorist act that is easily applied even in cases of non-violent protests) demanding the cease of persecutions based on the anti-terrorist act and their self-evident right to life and preservation of their culture. http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2010/09/23/announcement-contrainfo/ FOR SPANISH:  http://es.contrainfo.espiv.net/2010/09/23/comunicado-contrainfo/ contrainfo.espiv.net

Mapuche on hunger strike are entering into critical state

15.09.2010

 

There is still no concrete answer to the demands of the Mapuche population in Chile. Therefore, 32 political prisoners from this ethnic group are holding a hunger strike that has lasted 52 days. According to a medical report released recently, in the coming days the Indians could enter into a critical and vital risk.

Three strikers were already taken to the hospital with ill-health due to having ingested only liquids. Among them, Felipe and Mauricio Huenchullan Huaiquilao, were taken to emergency medical assistance because they are in life-threatening circumstances. The Mapuche have lost between 15 and 18 pounds since July 12.

"[The strikers] have entered a critical stage, in which they will probably lose more muscle tissue and perhaps in the next few days the organs, such as the liver, kidney and heart are starting to weaken," María Tralcal, spokesman for the strikers' families, told Radio Cooperativa.

The families also expressed though Tralcal that they are still concerned about the health of the strikers, but "also understand that the brothers made a decision and their attitude was always arriving up to the last consequences."

In an attempt to get the attention of the Chilean government, three Mapuche minors imprisoned in the special center of Chol Chol, joined the hunger strike. Louis Marileo Cariqueo, Cayupan Cristian Morales and Jose Perez Ñiripil justified their joining by stating that so far the government's responses were zero for all Mapuche demands. The young people also complain that they are not recognized as political prisoners.

Moreover, there is still the intention of denouncing the irregularities in the detention center for minors, ranging from abuse, up to the restriction of visits and a ban on entry of healthy food such as bread, meat and fruits, while allowing them only to receive sweets, chips and soft drinks.

Given this, the interior minister, Rodrigo Hinzpeter, called on the Mapuche prisoners to terminate the strike and announced the sending of two bills seeking to reform the 'anti-terrorism' law. The intention of the minister was well accepted by the Mapuche leader Jose Nain, who said the Mapuche expect this to be done as soon as possible so that the strikers' health is not weakened further.

Already the attitude of the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera, was the refusal of negotiations and dialogue with the Mapuche prisoners. Still, the president pledged to change the 'Anti-Terrorism Act' and the code of military justice. So far, the political prisoners are following and awaiting concrete answers to their demands.

History

The strike began on July 12, in the Temuco and Concepcion prisons and were joined by the Mapuche political prisoners in Angol, Valdivia and Lebu. The focus of the claims is the end of the so called 'anti-terror law', which deals with the Mapuche prisoners as "dangerous enemies of society,' reverses the presumption of innocence to keep suspects detained without evidence, accepts secret investigation, accepts 'faceless witnesses' and triples the penalties, which may range from 60 to 103 years.

Also the Mapuche want the demilitarization of their communities, the end of dual processes in civil and military justice and freedom for all Mapuche political prisoners.

With information from GARA, Nación Mapuche, Mapuche News Kaosenlared

Mapuche hunger strike enters 65th day 14 September

Mapuche protests are often met with a violent police response

Thirty-four Mapuche prisoners in Chile today entered the sixty-fifth day of a hunger strike. The protest began to highlight the use by the Chilean government of anti-terror legislation to criminalise attempts by the Mapuche to recover their ancestral land.
Although the Mapuche were only conquered in the 19th century after many years of resistance, most of their lands have since been confiscated by logging companies and wealthy farmers.
Several days ago four Chilean MPs who were visiting the strikers in jail announced that they were themselves joining the hunger strike.
The decision to prosecute the Mapuche under Chile’s strict anti-terror laws means that they can be detained indefinitely; tried in military courts; and receive far harsher sentences than would be the case in a civilian court.
In a belated response to the hunger strike, Chile’s President Piñera has proposed some modifications to the anti-terror legislation. The Mapuche, however, charge that these changes were planned anyway, and there is widespread suspicion that the government’s real motivation is to concede just enough to end the protest before Chile celebrates its Bicentennial on September 18th.
Chile ratified the key law on indigenous peoples, ILO Convention 169, two years ago, but has made little progress in implementing its provisions.

Chile - Riots and arrests on the anniversary of the 11 September 1973 military coup

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221 arrests. Four civilians and nine policemen injured in Santiago and other parts of the country.
...In the Santiago Metropolitan Region, 85 people were arrested, with many of the arrests occurring late at night. Three police were injured after being shot with pellet guns – two were shot in the eye and one was shot in the face.
In lower income areas of Santiago such as the Peñalolen borough, stones were thrown at passing cars. Special police forces had to intervene in the Villa Francia neighbourhood to stop a gas station from being looted. Power outages affected 104,000 households – as many as last year – after lines were cut during demonstrations.
A march from Plaza de Los Heroes to the General Cemetery in the Recoleta Borough started off peacefully, but ended in riot-like conditions near the cemetery.
The march began at 10 a.m. and was led by the Relatives of the Disappeared Detainees Association – a group representing the more than 1,300 people who were disappeared (and killed) during the 17-year Pinochet regime.
More than 8,000 people participated in the march, which culminated with the hanging of a wreath inside the cemetery.
However, just as the wreath was being hung, a mob appeared in the streets near the cemetery. Authorities did not intervene right away, and the protestors managed to destroy trash cans, tear down traffic lights, throw stones at police officers and assault two TV news cameramen. The police then stepped in with water cannons and tear gas.

Clashes in Chile on the anniversary of the coup (11/9)

“we deeply condemn this situation” said the substitute minister of interior of chile Rodrigo Ubilla referring to the attack on journalists and cameramen, the day of the protest on september 11th, anniversary of the coup. The protesters in Santiago overcame the funeral atmosphere that the state creates, and attacked those who are to blame for the oppression and manipulation. Banks, luxurious shops, cops, journalists and other symbols of the state and capital became a target of the protesters. “We do not mourn, neither do we demand better justice” comrades in Chile declared, denying to participate in the leftist festivals. The struggle for freedom continues...

Bomb Explodes Outside Church in Southern Chile

SANTIAGO – A small bomb exploded early Tuesday outside a Catholic church in the southern Chilean city of Temuco, destroying the front door and shattering windows, police and press reports said.

The blast occurred at 3:05 a.m. outside the Iglesia del Buen Pastor in downtown Temuco, the capital of La Araucania region, some 672 kilometers (about 420 miles) south of Santiago.

The explosion also damaged some nearby houses, Radio Cooperativa said.

Some pamphlets from a group calling itself Kaos Nativo Orquestal were left outside the church, investigators said.

Initial indications are that bomb was fashioned from a fire extinguisher packed with explosives.

The bomb was similar to those used in previous attacks in Temuco and Santiago that were blamed on anarchist groups.

A bomb damaged a bank branch early Saturday in the capital.

More than two dozen bombings have been staged in Chile in the past few years.

Responsibility for the blasts is usually claimed by anarchists or anti-globalization groups, some of them linked to Chile’s disgruntled Mapuche Indians.

A member of one of the anarchist groups linked by authorities to the attacks died in mid-2009 in Santiago when the bomb he was carrying in a backpack exploded while he was riding a bicycle.

A special prosecutor is investigating the bombings, which occur periodically.

The detonator on a bomb planted at the Regional Justice Secretariat in Temuco failed on New Year’s Eve.

Asel Luzarraga, a Spanish writer and front man of an anarchist punk group, was arrested in connection with the failed bombing.

Luzarraga participated in protests supporting Mapuche land claims in the region. EFE

SANTIAGO – A homemade bomb caused damage but no injuries at El Mercurio newspaper’s regional bureau in the coastal city of Viña del Mar, Chilean police said Thursday.

Bomb Damages Offices of Chile’s Major Daily

The explosion occurred at 11:45 p.m. Wednesday and the blast wave extended 30 meters (98 feet).

“The device was placed beside a column of the building and it reached windows of the El Mercurio offices and of contiguous apartments,” police Col. Fernando Bywaters told reporters.

No one was hurt and there has been no claim of responsibility for the bombing, he said.

The blast took place one block from Viña del Mar city hall and in the vicinity of two educational institutions.

Fifteen Chilean anarchists – including one serving time for other offenses – are currently accused of carrying out 23 bombings in Santiago and other cities.

The attacks targeted banks, offices of foreign companies, embassies, churches and police stations, mainly in the capital. The sole fatality was an anarchist killed when a bomb exploded as he was transporting it on a bicycle.

Santiago-based El Mercurio is Chile’s most influential newspaper and a pillar of the Andean nation’s conservative establishment. EFE

Chile An explosive device was found outside Banco Estado bank in Indepedencia. The device was seen by a man who went to use the atm and called the police who came and disabled it.

CENA Abeneficio de los compañeros presos en Chile +

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Hunger Strike Mapuches Demand Negotiations With Government

Monday, 30 August 2010

Physical problems reported Thirty-two imprisoned Mapuche activists reached the 50th day of their hunger strike over the weekend. The Mapuches were jailed for acts of violence under an anti-terrorism law created during the regime of dictator Augusto Pinochet.      The majority are members of CAM (Arauco Malleco Co-ordination), an organization formed in 1998 known for its ongoing attempts to recover Mapuche territory. The activists are held in prisons in Concepción, Temuco, Canete, Lebu, Angol and Valdivia. Some of the prisoners now suffer physical problems. Dr. Nelson Reyes told Radio Co-operativa that several Angol prisoners have colds and pharyngitis, an inflammation of the throat. Prisoners Haiquilaf Cadín Calfunao and Elvis Millán were recently transported to hospitals in Angol and Temuco for urgent medical exams. Both were reported suffering from heart problems. Following treatment they were returned to prison. Rodrigo Curapil, spokesperson for the families of the activists, has asked for negotiations with government officials to bring about a solution to the conflict.  The prisoners have lost between eight and 12 kilograms. On Friday, Amnesty International asked the Chilean government what it was doing about the crisis. The letter, signed by AI’s secretary general, Salil Shetty, said, “This is an occasion that demands that the government takes action in line with its obligation for human rights.”

Freight Trucks Burned in Southern Chile

August 27th, 2010 

SANTIAGO – Hooded assailants intercepted two freight trucks, pulled out the drivers and set the vehicles on fire, Chilean authorities said Wednesday.
The incident took place in the southern region of Araucania, where Mapuche Indian activists have torched vehicles, highway toll booths and lumber shipments as part of a campaign to reclaim ancestral lands from agribusiness and forest products companies.
In the wee hours of Wednesday, the assailants felled trees to block a stretch of road between Angol, capital of Malleco province, and the town of Collipulli, police said.
When a truck loaded with lumber stopped in front of the barrier, the hooded attackers brandished guns to force the driver out and then set the vehicle on fire.
The assailants repeated the process with a second truck.
As they were burning the second vehicle, the driver of the first fled. He encountered a police patrol about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) away, but the attackers were gone by the time the officers reached the scene.
The Chilean government is currently holding 106 Mapuches – some convicted, others awaiting trial – for acts of political violence in Araucania.
Thirty-two of those prisoners have been on hunger strike for more than 40 days to demand the scrapping of a draconian anti-terrorism law dating from the 1973-1990 Augusto Pinochet.
The anti-terror legislation allows the state to hold people for up to two years without charges, restrict defense attorneys’ access to evidence and use testimony from anonymous witnesses.
The hunger strikers also want the “demilitarization” of Araucania, the heartland of the 650,000-strong Mapuche nation, Chile’s largest indigenous group.
Two appellate courts ruled this week that prison authorities can force-feed the hunger strikers, while Catholic Bishop Manuel Camilo Vial is calling for dialogue to end the prisoners’ fast and resolve the issues raised by the Mapuches. EFE

Chilean Circus of 'Saints and Sinners'

Nina Dean, Vice secretary, Mapuche International Link | 29.08.2010 FROM UK.INDYMEDIA...

An update in spanish and english, by Mapuche International Link on the indigenous Mapuche political prisoners hunger strike in Chile on day 47 of their protest in defence of ancestral territorial rights and against the criminalisation of Mapuche democratic protest

Chilean President Pinera leading prayer service for trapped Chilean miners

Chilean Circus of Saints and Sinners

By Nina Dean*

29th Aug 2010


Chilean President Pinera leading prayer service for trapped Chilean miners (left) Mapuche political
prisoner chained to his bed (right)

Amidst a well orchestrated Chilean media blackout and after almost 50 days on hunger strike the health of the 32 Mapuche political prisoners incarcerated under anti terrorist law is in serious jeopardy, with two strikers being rushed to hospital in the past week.
Carlos Muñoz Huenuman and Eduardo Painemil Peña two of the Mapuche hunger strikers held in Lebu prison stated at the outset of their protest “With this extreme and fair measure, we extend the resistance carried out by Mapuche political prisoners in different Chilean jails, which seeks to denounce the injustices committed against our people. These injustices are reflected in the violent raids, where the victims are mainly elders and children; in the indiscriminate and set-up use of protected witnesses that include underage children; in the excessive duration of the investigations carried out by the District Attorney’s Office , which only perpetuate pre-emptive custody. Finally, we seek to reject the politico-judicial set-ups, sustained by the application of the Anti-terrorism Law, which seek to jail Mapuche social fighters that confront the extermination war declared against us by the Chilean State.”

As an international Mapuche human rights campaigner I have charted and publicised a catalogue of historic abhorrent abuses applied by the Chilean state to proud and peaceful Mapuche communities and individuals who resist assimilation and territorial domination by the Chilean State for the past decade., in particular that of the experience of the Lonko Calfunao family. In 2005 Chief Calfunao leader of the Juan pailalef community conducted a humanitarian visit to Europe in order to raise awareness within the international arena of the repression she, her community and indeed their nation had experienced as a result of their peaceful defence of ancestral territory. During the European visit Mapuche international link had accompanied Chief Calfunao to the headquarters of Amnesty international in London urgently requesting support due to the ongoing danger to her own and her families lives . Immediately following her return to her home to Chile she was arrested along with the remainder of her family and incarcered in Temuco women’s penitentiary where she remains to this day on a petty civil disobedience charge. Her youngest daughter Relmutray aged 12 was later transported by her family to Europe to seek sanctuary as a political refugee.
During the course of her incarceration Chief Calfunao had committed to hunger strike in 2006 at which time she suffered serious cardiac complications, the Tibetan Dali Lama offered prayers for her safety and wellbeing prior to ending her protest, the chief was on this occasion fortunate to survive. As a result of years of physical and mental abuse by Chilean officials and the physical impacts of her previous hunger strike Chief Calfuano has since suffered symptoms of a stroke with complete paralysis of one side of her body and is rendered incapable of speech, she remains in jail and untreated for this life threatening condition. In May 2010, Chief Calfuano’s sentence was set for review due to having served 4 years of her sentence and as a result of her exemplary behaviour during her incarceration, however the court ruled to deny her this opportunity and thus returned her to the penitentiary indefinitely. The Juan Paillalef community along with the Mapuche nation now have grave concern for her life.

Whilst the son of Chief Calfuano, Waikilaf cadin Calfunao having spent the majority of his adult life being harassed by Chilean police, enduring countless arrests, detentions and torture at the hands of his aggressors is currently detained on remand under anti terrorist charges for due to protesting for his mothers release for a crime which he did not commit. Waikilaf is currently committed to hunger strike in Angol prison, he was transported to hospital last week as a result of the physical effects of starvation.
Waikilaf’s father and brother were each recently released on probation following lengthy sentences on arbitrary charges. The Calfuano family’s’ experience of systematic brutal state repression due to the peaceful defence of their ancestral land is not a unique experience for everyday Mapuche, with hundreds of Mapuche families and communities sharing this same catastrophic experience.

The Chilean policy for control of the Mapuche people as a means of access to their land is tantamount to genocide, such is their ambition to have sole control of it and the valuable natural resources it represents to them and the evolving Chilean free market economy. In a pre-election statement Chilean right wing President Pinera, himself a wealthy businessman vowed, “We shall soon see the second Pacification of Araucania”, referring to a repeat of the original genocidal annexation of Mapuche territory which took place in the 1860’s in Chile.

Whilst the shift in economic trends moves away from investment in production towards investment in territorial resources, intellectual property rights and the like, the indigenous Mapuche like all indigenous peoples of the world today remain at impending and grave danger of annihilation. In the post 9-11 climate unscrupulous governments regularly conveniently classify indigenous democratic descent as a terrorist act in order to achieve their self serving and destructive ambitions. In this climate families such as the Calfunao’s and their countrymen are viewed in Machiavellian terms as expendable casualties when weighed against the survival and expansion of the capitalist state and its economic objectives.
The United Nations and the international human rights community watch on with increasing alarm for the health of the current 32 Mapuche hunger strikers whom, having reached a fragile and most vulnerable state in the absence of any medical intervention, acknowledgement nor dialogue from the Chilean state to bring a swift and lifesaving resolution to their situation, remain at their mercy.
The arrival in Chile this week of United Nations representative from the International Labour Organisation who will meet with Chilean government representatives in order to assess their compliance with ILO convention 169, a legal framework which stipulates that states must respect the rights of indigenous communities within their territorial boundaries with specific emphasis on the legal request for free and informed prior consent in relation to development issues affecting indigenous people within their ancestral territory a requirement which Chile have to date failed to fulfill.
Despite interventions made by the prisoners families and numerous public officials who had visited the prisoners such as left wing Chilean Senators Navarro and Jaime Quintana urging the government to urgently initiate dialogue to avert a tragic yet avoidable loss of life the Chilean state remains deaf to their pleas.
Whilst a leading international human rights representative Esteban Beltrán Director of Spanish Amnesty International this week visited Chile and publicly condemned the criminalisation of Mapuche democratic rights using the application of anti terrorist law; “The two most important human rights issues in Chile, he said, are Mapuche rights and women’s reproductive rights, commenting that “What really strikes me is that after 20 years of democracy, the Chilean government is applying the same antiterrorist laws from the dictatorship,” Beltrán said. “I’m astonished that this antiterrorist law is applied to the Mapuche community. I understand they may have perpetrated an illegal act, but they should be judged fairly.”
Meanwhile in the same week the compassionate and humanitarian response of the state to the recent rescue mission activated to save the lives of a proportionate number of trapped miners in the north of Chile appears to know no bounds with the new President this week staging a public offering of prayers in the presence of global and national media; upon the prayer platform, surrounded by government officials and adorned by a flurry of Chilean national flags amidst a large painting of saint Francis of Assisi the ‘patron saint of travellers’ Pinera announced while grasping a note sent from the miners "Coming from the deepest point in this mine, comes a message from our miners who are telling us that they are alive, that they are all together, and that they are waiting to return to see the light of the sun and embrace their families," . Whilst the concern for those trapped deep underground and the public and official outpouring of emotion for their wellbeing is laudable, the response comes in stark polar contrast to an entire lack of compassion nor concern for the 32 Mapuche hunger strikers within the nations grasp who currently lie in a fatal condition in their prison cells and whilst the effort to reach the miners is carefully chronologically calculated using precision technology to reach them the Mapuche hunger strikers though within easy reach are left to die alone and without governmental or mainstream public empathy nor support. One cannot help but speculate on the long term outcome of the hunger strikers condition and if at such time in the future the miners are reunited into the bosom of their loving families into the security of their homes the Mapuche strikers will still be alive to experience such simple human joys. If the Chilean state solely places value on human life by measuring the individuals willingness to assist economic growth then the Mapuche will remain not only invaluable but also a hindrance to the state’s economic ambitions and as such will remain an highly endangered people.

*Vice secretary
Mapuche International Link

www.mapuche-nation.org

Tinkunazo Solidario in spanish sorry no english this time...

     Hoy se realizó el Pasacalle por el Barrio Yungai, en solidaridad con lxs compañeros procesadxs y secuestradxs por el capital, anarquistas y mapuches. La actividad contó con un gran número de personas que se sumaron al recorrido en apoyo a lxs compañerxs; se repartieron paskines y se extendieron lienzos que proclamaban la libertad inmediata de quienes están secuestradxs a consecuencia de la aplicación de la ley antiterrorista que tanto aman los guardianes del estado.

     La policía estuvo hostigando todo el tiempo, incluso impidieron, en primera instancia, hacer el recorrido original, que pasaba frente al Centro Social Okupado y Biblioteca Sacco y Vanzetti, pero de todos modos, se consiguió llegar hasta la casa e informar a lxs vecinxs el porque de tan golgorioso carnaval. Se hicieron ollas comunes y varios compañerxs acompañaron la instancia con hip hop, cumbias, trovas y poesías.

     Una vez más, conseguimos demostrarles todo nuestro apoyo a lxs compañerxs, dejando muy en claro que nunca han estado solxs y que les acompañamos en cada momento, con gestos tan pequeños como este.

Porque nadie nunca será tan poderoso como para detenernos.

Que el miedo no destruya la solidaridad…
que la solidaridad destruya el encierro
SECUESTRADXS POR EL ESTADO A LA CALLE !!

Chile - Comunique from prison of arrested comrade Andrea Urzua

sysiphus-angrynewsfromaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/

translated from culmine with anger, love and solidarity

24/08/2010 - Comrades, friends, brothers, family,
A week has passed since the aggressor of women, the honourable Attorney Peña's, media show, (an allusion to a domestic violence complaint concerning the Chilean Marini - NDT). These have been hard days, far from my family, seeing a science fiction show on TV legitimised by audiences who have only shown how inefficient, ridiculous and barely credible the justice of the rich is.
It all started Saturday, August 14, at 6.50 am. While I was sleeping with my companion and my little daughter I heard a noise that made me think of an earthquake. But no, they were agents of the GOPE that ... were searching the place where I live. It was all very violent, while they were beating, blocking and handcuffing my companion I and my little one had weapons turned on us. A lot of shouting, excited police told us: "quiet, collaborate ... don't move, don't talk ... don't make it difficult" ... in those long seconds I thought I might be killed by those wretches with the little one in my arms ... we didn't understand what it was about ... we asked them to calm down, to show us the search warrant, what were the accusations ...
There was no reason for all the fuss ... we asked them not to aim their weapons as I was with my baby ... we tried once blocked, to calm them down and get them to explain to us what was happening ... a cop appeared, like the others, armed to the teeth, asking me my name, when I tell them who I am he looks satisfied to know ... everything was very stupid, they knew perfectly well that I lived there, knew where I work, the places I frequent, I saw them, they were too obvious ... about two months ago an RP came asking for me to my in-laws' house (where I live) with the excuse that I was a 'victim of VIF', it was obvious that the persecution that had gone on for years had not ended, that strange visit was intended merely to confirm my address. I do not want to present myself as a victim, but nothing can explain the violence of pointing a gun against an 11 month old baby girl,this action is at best despicable and without justification. At 7:45 in comes the Captain ... the one who was in charge of the searches and arrests. Only then did things calm down a bit ... forensic police in white overalls shut themselves in the bedroom where I sleep with my family (a room which, like the rest of the house was searched more than 6 times) they took away books, the computer, our telephones and an infinite number of things that really I do not understand what function they could have in “Operacion SALAMANDRA”. While they were searching every room of the house they were filming us, taking photos ... the captain tells me that my arrest is part of the investigations carried out by the comedian Attorney Peña, the famous Bombas case, investigations going on for four years, with four successive prosecutors, with arrests that led nowhere, that rely exclusively on the declaration of a schizophrenic, narco-trafficker and woman beater called Gustavo Fuentes Aliaga, alias "El Grillo". The accusations against me are: "transport of explosives and illicit terrorist association".
Between 9:30 and 10 they transferred me to 33 ° commissariat where I am "genteelly" received by a high-ranking policeman (without identification) who shouting asks me my name and threatens me with: "Now you'll see that this is not a game" ... the situation started to get heavy when I see "my friends" there too ... the press ... the jubilant cops ... the truth is, the situation was too much ... they try to subject my hand to an examination for signs of explosives, but I refuse because there was no lawyer present ... the show went on, other reporters, other cops, other people ... We are moved (in that place we were already 10) to the control of the arrests. There both the prosecutor and the Ministry of the Interior appear as complainants, for a judge there is donna Alejandra Apablaza who not only did not take our concerns into account, but left the investigations open until Tuesday 17.
I am taken to the high security section of the CPF (central Female Penitentiary) of Santiago, isolated from the other prisoners. On Tuesday, at the hearing for the validation of the arrests, the Catholic church associated itself as a complainant, after the preparation of the police programme that Peña had prepared shows us the "evidence" with which we are accused of illicit terrorist association. Telephone conversations that say nothing compared to the usual calls you can have between friends, videos that can be found on the Internet (made from TV programmes), leaflets, posters ... all public things in anyone's possession. They say we are an illegal association that has an "informal, horizontal and democratic" structure. That the leaders are Pablo and Garza. All the others, we would have a horizontal position, without intermediate leaders or any other position. It is said that our goal is the elimination of capital, the bourgeoisie, the church and any kind of power ... all with only 300 Chilean pesos.

The picture of the body of Punky Mauri after the explosion was shown to us in a Machiavellian sadistic way... and so on without any logic but to arrest us, trying to close the space of solidarity with political prisoners, counter-cultural spaces ( some of them defined by the prosecutor as "power centres") and all that is against the government, the system and power. I always thought that with the rise to power of Piñera all those against the fascist government of the bosses would be struck, but I never imagined that this would happen with such stupid, vulgar tricks. In fact the evidence is so rude and crude that it would not surprise me if this letter was seen as another proof against me. There are many things in my head, there are many ideas, so much anger and so much love ... kidnapping is the word I have in mind, I am another who has been kidnapped ... they are keeping me away from my family and friends only for being what I am: one that is convinced of the idea, an ironclad solidarity, one that thinks, one that criticises ... actually, as I once read: "Solidarity is a powerful weapon" and it is obvious that they fear it. When I got to know the struggle I fell in love with her. You can speak of madness, but it is my beautiful madness ... I struggle for emancipation, I love freedom with my whole being, with all my strength ...
Now it remains only (for the time being) send you much newen (strength in Mapuche language - NDT) thanking you for each one of the demonstrations of affection and support. I ask you to keep your eyes open, because it does not end here, that's obvious. A strong, close and fraternal embrace to each one of you.
ONLY THOSE WHO STRUGGLE LIVE, AND WE ARE MORE ALIVE THAN EVER!!! (I have heard this in these parts)
AKTIVE EFFEKTIVE SOLIDARITY!!! INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!!!
Andrea Urzúa Cid
P.P S.E.A.S. C.P.F.