"Transitional (In)Justice" Chile Seminar Report, January 2013

TRANSITIONAL (IN)JUSTICE

Human Rights and Chile’s

Vulnerable Populations

JANUARY 2013 SEMINAR

Published by Global Majority 411 Pacific Street, Suite 318 Monterey, CA 93940, USA www.globalmajority.org Editor: Cassandra Stedham Photography by: Cassandra Stedham Copyright Global Majority. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of Global Majority.

CONTENTS

About the Practicum (Page 1)

Introduction to Global Majority (Page 2)

Introduction to the Monterey Institute of International Studies (Page 3)

Practicum Field Agenda (Page 4)

Practicum Participants (Page 5)

Practicum Coordinators (Page 6)

“The Mapuche Quest for Cultural Survival Through Autonomy

by Dr. Jan Knippers Black (Page 7-10)

Student Reflections (Page 11-33)

Further Readings (Page 34)

TRANSITIONAL (IN)JUSTICE 2013

1

ABOUT THE PRACTICUM JANUARY 2013 In January 2013, a delegation of

students visited Chile for an immersive seminar on the country’s history of democracy, human rights abuses, and transitional justice.

In collaboration with Global Majority, this course was offered by Monterey Institute Professor Dr. Jan Knippers Black of the Graduate School of International Policy and Management and Judge Juan Guzmán, internationally recognized as the judge who prosecuted former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet.

The delegation focused on the role of the judicial system in Chile’s transition to democracy as well as the ongoing need for protection of the rights of vulnerable indigenous communities. Challenges confronted within these themes related also to grassroots development, micro-enterprise, conflict resolution, and environmental preservation.

The Chilean government’s treatment of its indigenous population has come under criticism by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and various UN human rights groups. Over the past century, due largely to invasion,

mistreatment, and persecution by the various regimes ruling Chile, these indigenous groups have experienced great losses of population and land.

The Mapuche, Chile’s largest indigenous group, have been particularly subject to political violence, false charges of crime, and disproportionate application of anti-terrorism laws, resulting in open

discrimination as well as criminalization of legitimate political protests and social demands. The practicum also deals with the collateral damage of Pinochet’s dictatorship to civil society institutions.

Following a week of lectures and discussion, orientation, and field trips in and around the capital, Santiago, students traveled south to Araucanía, the lake and volcano region, where they observed and experienced some of the challenges of life in a variety of

Mapuche communities. They listened and learned directly from Mapuche leaders, both men and women, assessed needs, and documented abuses of human rights of the indigenous and otherwise underserved Chilean peoples.

This report is a deliverable assessing the human rights protection needs of the indigenous and suggesting means of meeting those needs. ♦


2

Global Majority Vice-President Lejla Mavris and Dr. Chiseche Mebenge of Lehman College partake in traditional Mapuche dance with Mapuche community members.

Global Majority promotes nonviolent conflict resolution, mediation and advocacy. We are an international nonprofit organization that believes that principled dialogue is

imperative and must replace violent conflict if humankind is to thrive. To promote a fundamentally new manner of thinking in global relations, Global Majority is developing national, regional, and global advocacy campaigns that embody our aim to give voice to the global majority.

Global Majority was founded in 2003 by Bill Monning, Former Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at MIIS, and a group of his former students. During its lifespan, Global Majority has partnered with various communities and organizations around the world. Some of our landmark events and programs include the Salinas Peace Summit, Building Sustainable Peace in Nepal, Promoting Peace Through Dialogue in South Africa, a Seminar in International Negotiation in Costa Rica in partnership with the United Nations University for Peace and Local Mediation in a Global Context with the Monterey College of Law.

In partnership with Dr. Jan Knippers Black of the Graduate School of International Policy and Management at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Global Majority organizes a delegation to Chile for an immersive practicum entitled Transitional (In)justice. The course complements Global Majority’s vision of expanding forums for non-violent conflict resolution. We expect that the connections made between various actors in the Mapuche, Chilean, and global communities are crucial in advancing our shared vision of peace. ♦


3

Monterey Institute students Gabby Abrego, Maddie Stoeri, Cassandra Stedham, and Middlebury student Victoria Marambio gather with a Mapuche Lonka.

Be the Solution.

The Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), a graduate school of Middlebury College, is an academic community committed to preparing innovative professionals to provide leadership in cross-cultural, multilingual environments. The Institute provides international professional education in areas of critical importance to a rapidly changing global community, including international policy and management, translation and interpretation, language teaching, sustainable development, and non-proliferation.

MIIS prepares students from all over the world to make a meaningful impact in their chosen fields through degree programs characterized by immersive and collaborative learning, and opportunities to acquire and apply practical professional skills. MIIS students are emerging leaders capable of bridging cultural, organizational, and language divides to produce sustainable, equitable solutions to a variety of global challenges.

The Monterey Institute of International Studies was founded in 1955 as the Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies by foreign language instructor Gaspard Weiss, in collaboration with his wife Louise Weiss and co-founders Frank Elton and Sybil Fernley. Weiss and his colleagues envisioned a graduate school that would promote international understanding through the study of language and culture. While the institute’s name has evolved, its core identity as an innovator and leader in international professional education has remained constant. ♦


4 Transitional (In)justice Agenda

January 5, 2013

Arrival at Providencia B&B

Santiago, Chile

Welcome dinner

January 6, 2013

Exploring downtown Santiago

January 7, 2013

Classes at Universidad Bolivariana

January 8, 2013

Visit to Villa Grimaldi

Visit to Londres 38

January 9, 2013


Visit to Museo de la Memoria

January 10, 2013

Visit to La Victoria shantytown and Señal 3 underground radio station

January 11, 2013


Departure from Santiago

January 12, 2013

Lake Lleu-Lleu

January 13, 2013

Visit to Mininco

January 14, 2013

Arrival in Temuco

Visit to Temucuicui

January 15, 2013 Visits to Mapuche communities surrounding Temuco



January 18, 2013 Departure to Panguipulli and Carririñe

January 19, 2013 Carririñe

Return to Temuco

Departure to Valparaíso

January 20, 2013

Valparaíso – Mapuche Comunidad Urbana Laguna Corazón de Agua

January 21, 2013

Valparaíso tour and lunch Return to Santiago

Closing ceremony and dinner

January 22, 2013 MIIS and Middlebury departure

Lehman students – classes at Universidad Bolivariana

January 23, 2013 Lehman students – classes at Universidad Bolivariana




Partner Organizations: La Universidad Bolivariana, Consejo de Todas las Tierras


5

Gabby Abrego Ryan Coates Victoria Marambio Cassandra Stedham

Noosha Aftahi Camila Fernandez Aimee Martinez Maddie Stoeri

Paul Alzate Elizabeth Heath Vladimir Martinez Irina Sverzhanovskaya

Sydney Bern-Story Petr Knor Kelly McNamara Dave Yedid

Victor Borja Rafael Manyari Nicole Musho Elma Zapata

Student Participants

Jan Knippers Black – MIIS Michael Buckley – Lehman College, Global Majority

Lejla Mavris – Global Majority Chiseche Mibenge – Lehman College

Nicholas Tomb – Global Majority

Program Leaders and Professors

Interpreters Lauren Ames Camila González Misas

Chelsea Dipasquale-Hunton Beatrice Peaslee

Benjamin Englesberg


6 Practicum Coordinators

Jan Knippers Black

Professor, Monterey

Lejla Mavris

Program Director, Global Majority

Dr. Jan Black’s areas of expertise include Latin American Politics, human rights, and international development. She holds a PhD in International studies and an MA in Latin American Studies. Her international experience includes Senior Associate Membership at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University, Fulbright, Mellon, and other grants and fellowships in South America, the Caribbean, and India; on-site or short-term teaching and honorary faculty positions in several Latin American countries, and extensive overseas lecturing and research.

Jan was a first generation Peace Corps Volunteer in Chile and loves to revisit her friends and colleagues there. Jan was a faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh’s Semester at Sea program and has served as a research professor in the Division of Public Administration at the University of New Mexico. She has also been an editor and administrator in American University’s Foreign Area Studies Division and a board member for nearly two dozen international editorials and nongovernmental organizations.

Lejla Mavris is a founding member of Global Majority. She was the Executive Director of Global Majority from 2006-07 and is currently the Program Director. Lejla received a Master’s degree in International Policy and a certificate in Conflict Resolution from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She has over seven years of experience training students and teachers to incorporate conflict resolution education into school curriculums. She is also a trainer of international negotiation and mediation skills and has conducted trainings in Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Jordan, Nepal, and the United States.

Previously, Lejla worked at the United Nations Refugee Agency’s Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit at its office in Geneva as a part of her International Professional Service Semester, publishing her work on refugee smuggling and migration. Lejla is originally from Sarajevo, Bosnia.


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An uphill battle for cultural survival is being waged now around the world. Whether exploited for their labor, as cannon-fodder in high and low intensity conflicts, or just obliterated in passing as their ancestral homes got in the way of bombs and bullets, herbicides and hydroelectric plants, the vulnerability of unintegrated survivors of ancient cultures seems to have always invited abuse.

The hardships of the indigenous in Chile, against which demands are made and struggles are launched, are not so different from those suffered by indigenous peoples elsewhere. Nor are the rights demanding recognition far removed from the norms of indigenous rights now recognized in much of Latin America. Since 2009, Monterey Institute students, joined more recently by Middlebury College students, have engaged directly with the people and the problems of Chile’s largest indigenous nation, the Mapuche, through an onsite course – a collaboration of MIIS Professor Jan Knippers Black and Chilean Judge Juan

Guzman in partnership with Global Majority and Universidad Bolivariana.

The Mapuche, whose lands once extended into what is now Peru and still extend into Argentina, have experienced continuous shrinkage of habitat and population since the encroaching armies were those of the Inca. Seen by

themselves and others, however, as warriors, fierce defenders of their turf and their nationhood, the Mapuche remained undefeated by the Spanish conquistadores and the subsequently independent Chilean state. In the late nineteenth century, however, the indigenous communities of the South were finally contained and subdued.

The national settlement area is confined now for the most part to the Chilean Central Valley south of the Bio Bio River, with about a third of the 609,000 self-proclaimed Mapuche residing in Region IX, generally known as Araucanía. The Mapuche nation continues to claim ancestral lands no longer under their control, including particularly the more than 200,000 hectares (440,000 acres) that were seized by the dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition to rights to land, they call for constitutional recognition of their identity as an indigenous nation and respect for their culture.

Deterioration of the economic base of the Mapuche, particularly the alienation of the land, so central to livelihood as well as to community and cultural survival, has accelerated greatly in recent decades. From an average of 9.2 hectares per rural family in 1960, holdings shrunk, particularly in the late 1970s and early 1980s to a mere three hectares per family in 1986. Poverty rates and rural-to-urban migration rates increased exponentially over those years, a trend exacerbated by state terrorism

The Mapuche Quest for Cultural Survival Through Autonomy by Jan Knippers Black


8 employed by the Pinochet regime and the encroachment since on Mapuche land of logging operations, tree plantations, and cellulous and hydroelectric plants, forcing community displacement and causing environmental degradation.

Since 1993 the government has been legally required to return land to the Mapuche and other indigenous groups. Many drawbacks and restrictions, however, have been incorporated into the legislation, including insistence on titles dating to the nineteenth century and distribution to individual families rather than to communities. And since

2009, the government has refused to hand over lands to indigenous communities whose members were charged with acts of violence. Carabineros, militarized national police, generally respond to land occupations and other acts of defiance by a few with massive reprisals against whole communities.

Moreover, under anti-terrorism legislation, used routinely now against the Mapuche, testimony can be taken in secret and suspects can be held for long periods without trial and without bail in cases assigned to military rather than civilian courts.

In 2012 and 2013, Mother Nature, in the form of global climate change, appeared to weigh in on the side of the

government. In early January of 2012, Chile’s levels of summer heat and drought broke all-time records, especially in Araucanía. Consequent forest fires that broke out around the region and firefighter casualties were then blamed on the Mapuche.

The criminalization of the entire Mapuche Nation enabled troops of carabineros in combat gear and equipped with helicopters, armored trucks, and water tanks, to block roads, encircle villages and invade – trashing and terrorizing, detaining whole families, and arresting recognized community leaders.


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An episode even more disturbing to Mapuche and winkas (non-Mapuche) alike took place at the beginning of January 2013, as the heat and drought became even more oppressive than the year before. The manor house of the fundo, or country estate, of the Luchsinger family, several kilometers to the east of Temuco, went up in flames clearly incinerated this time by arsonists and in which the owners, an elderly couple, lost their lives.

A few days after the news was splashed across the front pages of El Mercurio, troops of carabineros began descending upon Mapuche communities across Araucanía, rounding up and detaining community leaders, including even the Machi, women who are the traditional healers.

A carabinero assault on Temucuicui, far to the west of Temuco, left images of that community as an all-out war zone streaming on the Internet. If the government was convinced that the Mapuche were responsible, they released no evidence to back such a claim, and the Mapuche seemed equally convinced that the episode was staged for the purpose of implicating and demonizing the Mapuche. The Mapuche, however, are not simply settling for

victimization. Far from it. Murals cropping up post-Pinochet in Mapuche country recount centuries of heroic struggle against conquest. That spirit of resistance, albeit now non-violent resistance, has been reinvigorated by the example of what can be accomplished in Chile even by a single courageous and committed individual like Judge Juan Guzman, as well as by what indigenous peoples around the world can achieve when they pull together.

“An uphill battle for cultural survival is being waged now around the world.”

Inspired particularly by the UN declaration on the rights of the indigenous adopted by the General Assembly in 2007 and by Chile’s ratification in 2009 of ILO Convention 169, Mapuche leaders have launched a new program to educate their communities about the individual and collective rights to which they are entitled under international law. That process was consecrated in January 2009, in the launching, at the headquarters of the Consejo de Todas las Tierras (Council of All the Nations) in Temuco, of the Escuela de Autogobierno,

or School for Self-Determination. In the period since, Aucan Huilcaman, Werken, or spokesman, for the Consejo, has patiently studied the legal ramifications of the situation in which the Mapuche find themselves and has drawn together more and more of the Lonkos (leaders) from far-flung communities to consider their options and chart the course ahead.

In the immediate aftermath of the estate fire of January 2013, Aucan summoned leaders from Mapuche and winka communities alike to a Summit on a hilltop in the center of Temuco for the pursuit of a path to peace.

Winka leaders in attendance included the media, of course; representatives of universities; of national and international NGOs; and of the United Nations. Winka politicians included mayors, members of the national congress, presidential candidates, bureaucratic leaders, and even a representative of the office of the President. The hundreds of Mapuche leaders who streamed in in full ceremonial dress included many from communities heretofore unrepresented in the Consejo. Not all of the winka leaders in attendance were pleased by what they heard from the


10 Mapuche leaders, but all seemed to understand that they needed to hear them out.

For now the consensus within the Consejo appears to favor pursuit of some version or degree of autonomy for the Mapuche Nation within the Chilean state. Many among the Mapuche resist being designated as Chile’s indigenous. They see themselves as a proud nation, having a culture, a language, a value system, and a trajectory all their own.

This by no means implies succession from the Chilean state, much less a violent rebellion against it. Rather, it presumes the right to live in peace and mutual respect among the Chileans – to be left alone on their land with the unspoiled resources essential to support life and livelihood. They do not seek to withdraw from the world around them but to integrate it as a people proud and free, protected by national and international law.

Neither the concept nor the practice of autonomy is new. It has been diffused, adopted and adapted by minority peoples around the world. There could be no assumption, however, of “one-size-fits-all.” To deal with the unique situation of the Mapuche, a promising design for autonomy would have to take into account the interspersion of Mapuche communities with winka

towns and villages within Araucanía, as well as the large urbanized population that identifies to varying degrees with their Mapuche heritage and with contemporary Mapuche concerns. Needs that might be met through autonomy, or that might draw additional communities into the struggle, also vary greatly from those communities contained largely through assimilation into the state’s social infrastructure and dependence on the state for services and jobs to

“Many among the Mapuche resist being designated as Chile’s indigenous. They see themselves as a proud nation, having a culture, a language, a value system, and a trajectory all their own.”

communities contained through occupation, wherein interaction with the state is mainly that of being surrounded and harassed by carabineros for the sake of the protection of corporate operations in the area.

Given the recent and recurrent inclination of the state to hostility toward the Mapuche, the Consejo’s design for autonomy draws upon international human rights law and international organizations, beginning with the United Nations, as well as upon NGOs and regional and global confederations of indigenous peoples. But it draws also upon the support already on offer from empathetic elements of Chilean civil society, including organized labor, universities, and of particular promise, the remarkably successful student movement for affordable education.

Finally, bulwarked and buffeted by international and national constituencies, the Consejo de Todas las Tierras must still convince resistant state institutions of the limitations to Mapuche ambitions and the sincerity of their search for common ground – a big order, but much of the groundwork has already been laid. And Aucan and his Consejo colleagues remain confident. ♦


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UN Warnings and the Fight for Indigenous Identity by Gabriella Abrego

This past July, while we in America celebrated our nation’s independence, The Committee at the 83rd UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) called special attention to the growing unrest of the indigenous Mapuche people in Chile. The Santiago Times reported, “[CERD] warned that Chile needs to make immediate changes to its current strategy regarding Mapuche issues in order to avoid the outbreak of a serious, all-out conflict.”

Although well overdue, this recent international statement is a big step forward for indigenous rights recognition in Chile, South America, and around the world.

We as a global community, absorbed in the pursuit to innovate and advance, rarely look into the lives of those who live traditionally and the social and political stigmas that may result from that choice The Mapuche people have been in constant conflict with the Chilean State over land rights and self-determination since the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. Today, they struggle to even begin an open dialogue with State officials around realistic policy reform, the amendment of Chile’s anti-

terrorism law – under which they are regularly prosecuted – and the international rights of indigenous peoples. As they push forward in the pursuit of autonomy, the Mapuche people also face an internal battle with identity, nationalism and the future of what it means to be Mapuche.

Just as there is constant debate over American identity and how or who should be considered for inclusion, the same goes for indigenous identity. While traveling in Chile this past January to research the current Mapuche situation, I discovered indigenous identity goes much deeper than where and when a group of people began


12 existing; indigeneity is rooted in history, nature, cultural symbols, community and the personal strife to define who and why a person is. The Mapuche people see themselves as exclusively Mapuche, People of the Land, neither Chileans nor South Americans. Due to centuries of repression, they have no sense of nationalism and hold on to their fundamental beliefs in land protection as a means of expressing who they are and why they continue to fight for their ancestral rights. Although this identity has made them unified as a people, it has also demonized them in the eyes of Chilean society.

When I look to my identity, I also consider those underlying factors of indigeneity, history, culture, “We can start now, strong in our American identities as fighters for the global good, to promote [Mapuche] rights, to promote their indigeneity.” community, but what I, a young American woman in the 21st century, have difficulty grasping is the strife for self-definition, the right to celebrate one’s cultural heritage and

champion its survival. As an American, my

cultural heritage’s survival is protected by law and my right to live as freely and openly as I please, a luxury so few indigenous people hold today. By following the UNCERD call to action, this year can mark a fresh international response to indigenous issues for the Mapuche and all the other numerous groups around the world. We can start now, strong in our American identities as fighters for the global good, to promote their rights, to promote their indigeneity and secure their right to self-determination and self-definition. ♦


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As our group of 20 students trekked up the mountainside, I did not know what to expect. After a week of meeting with Mapuche communities, listening to their grievances, and experiencing the poverty, human rights violation and frustration firsthand—I could feel the excitement build for La Cumbre Mapuche (Mapuche Summit), organized to discuss the autogobierno (self-determination). The cases of water contamination, forced forestation, and police raids that I had seen thus far on the trip were isolated cases within individual Mapuche communities. La Cumbre Mapuche, held at the top of a mountain in Temuco, not only gathered hundreds of lonkos and werken, community leaders, but also the media, politicians, NGOs, and foreigners like myself in one location to discuss the future of the Mapuche nation. Never have the Mapuche, nine percent of Chile’s total population, felt and appeared so united and ready to take positive forward action.

The Chilean government was invited to participate in this historic event, but they did not accept the invitation to discuss the future relationship. Aucán Huilcamán, leader of El Consejo de Todas las Tierras, an organization based out of Temuco, essentially led the event. Initially, he listed Mapuche grievances, but also painted a clear picture of how the community was to move forward as an autogobierno and what their expectations were from the Chilean government. I was amazed by the support and number of Mapuche that attended the summit, the passionate participation, and awareness of the important role the media would play at this event. It was rumored that the summit would be protested or shut down by the government. However, the media coverage was enormous and they were live streaming the presenters onto local news, interviewing members of our group, and the overall energy was electric.

La Cumbre Mapuche: A Peaceful Path to Self-Determination? by Sydney Bern-Story


14 Huilcamán, as the spokesperson, indicated that El Consejo and the Summit were

serving to create a new process to lead a new and innovative way of government with modern indigenous leadership. While, in theory, this is easy to conceptualize and discuss, in practice and implementation it is harder to define how the leadership and self-determination of the Mapuche will manifest. A potential consequence to achieving self-determination is the reaction of the Chilean State to El Consejo and the Mapuche. Will this lead to more violence, more arrests and potentially a civil war? The Mapuche are climbing a steep mountain and each step needs to be taken carefully if they want to reach the top without getting rained down upon by the government.

Antiterrorism laws and the media are already undermining some Mapuche efforts and support nationally. With a persuasive marketing technique, a clear plan and methodology to self-determination, the Mapuche could potentially succeed with their autogobierno peacefully. However, internal divisions amongst the Mapuche will have to be addressed sooner rather than later. Right now, El Consejo is looking to potentially implement a high-level commission with the Chilean State, to organize a Mapuche School of Self-Governance, and to use traditional institutions in the international court

system. Unfortunately, the back-up plan in this case is the international court system, but The Hague does not hear cases from institutions, it hears cases from governments. El Consejo will need to look deeper into international law and domestic law and compare their situation with other indigenous groups in Latin America to see how to move forward in the next few years. ♦


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January 5, 2013, arrival in Santiago. Here to participate in an 18-day seminar, Transitional (In)Justice. We will explore the history of a dictatorship, a transition to democracy never fully transitioned, stubborn challenges that a nation cannot overcome. The same day, as the plane touches down, newspapers report a tragic fire in southern Chile. The lost life of a wealthy landowner and his wife. International news, international headlines. “XXX” proclaimed the XXX. Warnings of conflict between the state and Mapuche indigenous communities in the south. For surely it is they that committed this heinous crime… Surely it is they… in retaliation for the death of a

Mapuche youth on this same day five years prior, or for two hundred years of broken promises, or for land appropriations, or clear-cuts in the forest, environmental devastation, marginalization, dignity, justice.

A Memory Museum. A detention center and a torture chamber. Villa Grimaldi. Londres 38. A woman whose husband disappeared 40 years ago, never to be found. The overthrow of a president. Tanks in the streets, fighter jets in the air, firing upon La Moneda. The Chicago Boys and the Central Intelligence Agency. This is what we are capable of doing. This is what they say progress looks like.

A classroom. Student leaders, Mapuche representatives and a judge. Tears at injustices old and new, the struggle continues. Juan Guzmán Tapia, the judge who took down a dictator, who rationalized the disappearances, who argued that the past didn’t go anywhere, that the statute of limitations had not expired, that until the disappeared

Reflections on Transitions by Nicholas Tomb


16 are found, the crimes live on. The dictator was found guilty of crimes against his country.

An exciting week in the nation’s beautiful capital city. Warm nights, cold showers, new friends, pisco sours, water fountains in the broad esplanade. Cold drinks and piles of pasta in the courtyard of a pirate radio station. La Victoria and the victory of the poor, the downtrodden. The murals on the walls document their struggle, the great struggle, the struggle, seen again and again, in country after country, in era after era.

The entire group – minus one who, scared by news stories and rumors about violence in the wake of the fire, opts out – travels south. An all night bus ride, no

chickens on this bus. An early morning, a small town square, cold air, searching for a toilet. The walls read “Mapuche resist!” Is that tension in the air? A busload of winkas waiting, watching, wondering…

Such incredible beauty, the lake cool in the hot air, happy campers splash on the beach, children’s laughter fills the air, fills the water, the clean, pure water. The hills barren, shaved bald, scraps of bark littering the hillsides, blood-red topsoil washing down into the lake, such a beautiful lake. “Yes, it is beautiful here,” the wise woman sighs, her old eyes cringing, crying, recalling what was once beautiful beyond comprehension, that which was once beautiful…

Mile after mile after mile after mile…who knew that eucalyptus trees could grow so tall, so straight, such perfect rows of neat, tall trees, mile after mile after mile.


17 Who knew the Monterey pines grew here, too, so straight the rows, so green the

boughs, so proud, so tall, mile after mile after mile after mile…

The paper mills pollute the earth. The cash crops drain the aquifers. The animals have no water to drink. The people have cancer, birth defects, bright red rashes on their worried faces. The land has lost its value, no one wants to move here, those that are here want to leave, but how? Where? With what? Their land has lost its value; they have no money to move on.

The courtroom hushes as the trial commences. Charges of terrorism, laws left over from the reign of the dictator. Is this really law? Is this really fair? Is it really terrorism, this crime against the earth, the mono-crops, the dried up river, the leukemia? No, this is the tax base, this is the progress. The terrorist is the 18-year-old girl who threw a rock at the logging truck. The officer didn’t actually see the rock…but saw the girl. The daughter of the Lonko, the local chief. The punishment? 300 days behind bars. 300 days without sunshine, bird calls, the refreshing relief of the wind. 300 days without friends or family or the sacred earthly inter-connectedness that the Mapuche revere. She is the daughter of the chief, after all. An example must be made.

A summit. An invitation. To the president of the nation. To every senator, every representative, every candidate. A declaration. A treatise. A call for peace, for reconciliation, for recognition. The press is here, and the candidates. We are here, international observers. We bear witness. For all his talk of action, the president is missing. A prayer for peace, for justice. The brightly dressed Machi, wise old women that they are, the articulate Mapuche politician in his western clothes, the beating drums, the toot of horns fills the air.


18 “Everybody knows that the system is broken, but nobody does anything to fix

it,” says the wily man in the Valparaíso hostel. Over 125 amendments to the constitution, yet anti-terrorism laws still on the books, sentences still ten times harsher than the regular punishment. 300 days.

“Hear this. Feel it in your heart. Ten thousand miles is not so far. Forty years is not so long…neither is 200 for that matter. Shine a light on this. Spread the word. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Change will come – it always does. It will take time, but this too shall pass.”

Will this beautiful, tragic nation ever heal itself? Will justice ever prevail? Will the memories ever be laid to rest? What is the face of progress, what is the meaning of transition, where can we go from here? Will these proud, kind people, rich and poor alike, northern and southern, western and indigenous ever find peace? Reconciliation? Respect for diversity, for the wealth of their country, their culture, their national heritage? How many more seminars will we lead? How many more students will use this country as a case study? How many more miles of eucalyptus? How many more

rocks, how many more bars, how many more fathers fearing for their daughters, feeling the guilt that only a parent can know, the humiliation that only a father can suffer? Another report. Another presentation. Hear this. Feel it in your heart. Ten thousand miles is not so

far. Forty years is not so long…neither is 200 for that matter. Shine a light on this. Spread the word. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Change will come – it always does. It will take time, but this too shall pass. This too shall become a history, a lesson, a marker in our march forward, the change, the progress, the hope for a better way, for a better world. ♦


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There is a certain aura that hangs thick and heavy in the Chilean air. I feel it as soon as I step off the airplane. I feel it during the white-knuckled, sweaty-palmed, imaginary-brake-stomping taxi ride to Providencia. It clings to my skin in the hot summer air as I blunder through the metropolis that is Santiago. It is an atmosphere tinged with equal parts oppression and optimism. The memories

that linger are tangible. Chile’s dark and tragic history is countered by an insurmountable will to overcome subjugation and garner justice for the unforgivable mass atrocities committed by Augusto Pinochet and his military regime. This determination is also demonstrated by the Mapuche people fighting tooth and nail to stop the

Bridging the Gap Between Dictatorship and Democracy by Cassandra Stedham

government from capitalizing on their sacred land, and the Chilean students who are standing up for their right as citizens to receive quality and affordable education. Chileans are the self-proclaimed heirs of a very abusive history.

In the cities, no wall is left unpainted. Every once-blank space is

used to tell a story. The murals of Chile’s cities illustrate a history of injustice, subjugation, and resistance. Street art became a way for Chileans to voice the opinions and the emotions that the government tried to suppress. Exploring Santiago and the vibrantly colorful Valparaíso, I am provoked into thought every time I turn a corner.


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Some of the graffiti that catches my eye reads “FIN AL ESTADO DE PINOCHET,” and “DESDE EL LICEO Y LA UNIVERSIDAD MARCHAMOS POR UNA NUEVA SOCIEDAD.” These exclamations are so novel and invigorating to me, coming from American society, where graffiti is so heavily frowned upon and almost always unintelligible. It occurs to me at some point that young people seem to vastly outnumber elderly people in the cities, and I make the unwelcome correlation with the desaparecidos of the Pinochet dictatorship.

During a visit to El Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos in Santiago, the ceaseless devotion of the friends and family members of the desaparecidos overwhelms me. Four decades later, two widows visit the museum with flowers and the faces of their lost loved ones affixed to their chests. They come regularly, they tell us. They come to remember. The most striking part of the museum for me is a wall covered by thousands of portraits of the desaparecidos. The several frames left empty send a shiver down my spine – left empty to represent those who left no trace.

Everywhere we go I feel like I am being transported through history. On the way to Villa Grimaldi, two musicians climb onto the bus. Drowsy from the

heat, I close my eyes and listen to them strum their guitars and sing with beautifully wavering voices. When we arrive, I find it difficult to wrap my head around the idea that so many brutal atrocities were committed in such a beautiful place. I try to imagine how it looked back then. Birch trees would have shaded the tiny cells meant to hold five people at a time, but the heat would have been stifling during the summer nonetheless. We take turns going inside the cell and closing the door, and each of us leaves carrying a heavy weight. I am told that the prisoners who were not set free from Villa Grimaldi were transported to the airport, where they were given lethal injections, filled with iron bars, and thrown into the ocean.

Things seem so much more simple and peaceful in the country. Our time spent in the south was unforgettable and bittersweet. The Mapuche are a happy, kind, and generous people. They open their communities to us, feed us, dance with us, and share their stories. The government is abusing their rights and attempting to take away the sacred lands that have belonged to them throughout history. The carabineros attack them and detain them indefinitely on made-up or embellished charges under a Pinochet-era anti-terrorism law.


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In Mininco, Mapuche lands have been devastated by pollution from a paper mill. The water, the animals, and the vegetation have all been contaminated, and the people living there are ill, but they cannot leave. As the horses prance around and the cows graze in the pastures against a backdrop of beautiful land illuminated by the glow of the sunset, it’s impossible to tell with the naked eye that everything is utterly contaminated. Until change happens, the people of Mininco will keep fighting to live with their land and their culture intact.

“Feel our spirit. Everything you hear and see is not what is reflected in the media…we will always be part of the earth.”

The Mapuche are not only heirs of an abusive history – they are still being abused. Though many advances have been made since the Pinochet dictatorship and Chileans and Mapuche alike have taken a stand against the government’s wrongdoings, there is still much work to do on this front. With the UN’s recent calls for an end to, or at least a drastic reform of, the anti-terrorism law and for the redistribution of Mapuche land, as well as the support of the student leaders, universities, and labor movements, there seems to be hope that the Mapuche will be able to negotiate an acceptable compromise with the State. Maria Eugenia in Carririñe fought and won against a Norwegian company that wanted to build hydroelectric plants on her land. I have seen the strength and determination of the Mapuche, and have faith that they will prevail. They have asked us to tell their stories, and that is what we intend to do. As a young Mapuche woman said to us in a classroom in Santiago, “Feel our spirit. Everything you hear and see is not what is reflected in the media…We will always be part of the earth.” ♦


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In January 2013, I traveled to Chile to study democracy and human rights. Despite Chile’s complicated history and experience with dictatorship, I expected to arrive into a ‘free’ country, a rating given to Chile by the Freedom House. At first, Chile seemed to be a prosperous and quite developed democracy, but upon closer inspection, its democratic system seems flawed and rather more endangered than developing.

Between 1973 and 1990, Augusto Pinochet, a military dictator, ruled Chile after he overthrew democratically elected president Salvador Allende. The existence of this regime was possible thanks only to the populism of Pinochet, severe suppression of the opposition, and control of media by the state. In 1990, Pinochet’s rule ended after democratic elections that followed referendum in 1988. The constitution was amended and Chile moved from dictatorship to liberal democracy, but this movement did not affect all Chileans in the same way. While most of Pinochet’s laws were annulled, the Antiterrorism Law was not.

Is Chile a Democracy? by Petr Knor According to this law, illegal land occupation and attacks on the property of the multinational companies encroaching on Mapuche land are considered acts of terrorism. Moreover, the prosecution might be based on testimonies of anonymous or unidentified witnesses, and ‘terrorists’ can be detained

indefinitely without a court trial. This violates Chilean law itself, since Chilean civil law regards testimonies from anonymous witnesses as invalid. As Manuel Jaques said, it fails to be a law. It simply does not have a place in democracy.

However, it is still in effect, and since the Chilean consolidation of ‘democracy,’ it has only been used against Mapuche people, the indigenous

people of Chile, which violates the universal and anti-discriminatory essence of human rights. In general, it goes against the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights since it degrades anyone who is judged by this law.


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Furthermore, these ‘crimes’ are not acts of terrorism and even if they were, everyone has the right to a ‘fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.’ (Art 10), or to be ‘considered innocent before proven guilty’ (Art 11), among many others. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states these rights clearly, and full implementation of the UDHR is necessary for democracy.

The Mapuche are simply being targeted by the state. Jaime Huenchulan told us that five out of six of his siblings face legal charges and that the police had arrested him six times in the past week. This should not be happening in a ‘free’ country like Chile. Yet there is an even more frightening resemblance of Pinochet’s regime, and that is the disappearance of José Huenante, a 16-year old Mapuche boy that was arrested on September 3, 2005. His location has been unknown since then. During Pinochet’s regime many people disappeared and their families never saw them or their bodies again. But how can this happen in a democratic country?

I believe that the biggest crime committed against the Mapuche is the degradation of their people. Right now, the Mapuche do not fight for autonomy primarily, but for recognition by the Chilean state and constitution. The Chilean state refuses to recognize them as people and to acknowledge their rights since politicians fear the loss of power

and a decrease in cash flow from unsustainable industries like eucalyptus forest farms or toxic paper production.

All of this is not only due to the government’s ignorance, but to the ignorance of Chileans as well, since they fail to inform themselves properly. Major media outlets seem to be tools similar to those used during the Pinochet regime. Unfortunately, it remains the main source of information for the most.

Fortunately, there have been slight improvements and young Chilean students especially seem to be aware of

the problem. We not only heard this from the students we met during our classes at Universidad Bolivariana in Santiago, but from random young people on the trip. Furthermore, in all the cities

I visited – Santiago, Concepción, Valparaíso, Temuco, and San Pedro de Atacama, I saw graffiti demanding justice for the Mapuche, celebrating their struggle and the name of Aucan, the face of the movement, and proud graffiti shouting Marichiweu – meaning “we will overcome.” The most truthful and accurate graffiti was “Resistencia no es Terrorrismo!” (Resistance is not Terrorism)

Led by Aucan, the Mapuche want to work inside of the political framework to reclaim their rights. They are not terrorists. Occupying land is not an act of terrorism, nor is damaging property


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or assaulting employees of multinational companies in an attempt to reclaim the land that was theirs in the first place. Protesting against governmental decisions is not terrorism. However, using water cannons against protesters during a peaceful protest is a violation of the right to freedom of expression. Ignoring and behaving differently towards a minority is discrimination and manipulating media is not a sign of democracy either. As Manuel Jacques said during the first discussion we had, “Human rights are the essential guide to the social reconstruction of Chile,” and not only reconstruction, but also a construction of a viable democracy. The leap from Pinochet’s regime to a new, democratic Chile was big, but more needs to be done.

“Human rights are the essential guide to the social reconstruction of Chile.”

In order to do this, the general Chilean population needs to recognize the Mapuche struggle for rights above everything else. Chileans need to realize that if the Mapuche rights are violated by the state, then their rights are endangered too. The constitution and political system need to be changed or completely rewritten. And most importantly, the change needs to start from within. Right now, Chile is not a totally free country as Freedom House declares, but it could be if both the Chilean community and the international community support the cause. ♦


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While passing through the streets of Santiago, one can sense the divide that still exists in Chile 40 years after the coup d’état that drastically changed their course of history. After the coup, Chile suffered torture, injustice, and militarization throughout the country for the almost 20 years of Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship. Today, the country is still trying to figure out how to remember those horrible years and what to take away to assure that it does not happen again. This has significantly divided the country due to the controversial character that Pinochet was. Some consider him the savior of the country, while some consider him a murderous dictator – although more seem to be leaning towards the murderous dictator side as more information has been revealed. Meanwhile, a current struggle between government and the Mapuche, indigenous people located in southern Chile, over land and self-determination remains in the shadows. Unfortunately, aspects of the current conflict resemble the brutalities of the past.

Currently, the Chilean government

Chile’s Legacy: What will be remembered of today? by Kelly McNamara

has been using an Anti-Terrorism Law, enacted in 1984 by the military dictatorship of Pinochet, to prosecute Mapuche people who have supposedly committed acts of vandalism or other small crimes. However, the acts committed significantly fall short of any sort of terrorist act, no matter how you define it. Using this repressive law against the Mapuche has only infuriated

them and alienated them further from the Chilean society. While the Chilean government is using this law to bring stabilization to the area, the reality is that this law is only furthering

the disorder that exists in the area and strengthening the Mapuche’s fight against the government.

Consequently, not much thought has gone into how to eliminate the atrocities that are being carried out against the Mapuche people. Since 1990, the Anti-Terrorism Law has been used mainly against Mapuche activists. Continuing to use the Anti-Terrorism Law doesn’t draw any distance between the new democracy and the old dictatorship. Rather than incorporating the Mapuche people into the Chilean society and political process, Chile


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has alienated them further and has given the Mapuche further reason for demanding autonomy. After over 20 years of democracy, Chile has not yet become a place of justice and opportunity.

In order to progress, Chile needs to recognize the Mapuche and other indigenous people and their rights. Most importantly, Chile needs to fully acknowledge the atrocities of their past and distance themselves from any law that

might enable injustice to continue. Meanwhile, the Mapuche leaders must use the system that is in place now. While their ancestors were the rightful holders of the land, if they want to continue with the restitution of their land – under a law created in 1993, Chile has been slowly returning land to the indigenous people – they need to make gains within the legal and political system that exists. By operating within the system, this adds legitimacy to their fight.

This does not mean they are limited to the Chilean political system. They can also use the United Nations to declare their cause and report violations of human rights. Also, educating and inviting foreigners, like the Chile J-Term group, to hear their struggle and learn about their culture and struggle will only further advance their causes. Confrontational tactics and conflict with law enforcement only hinder their advancement. The media can portray them

in a negative manner and other Chileans will not back their cause. A peaceful fight will gain much more sympathy and have more success. A good example of this peaceful fight is the Cumbre Mapuche that we attended on the 16th of January demanding self-determination, respect of past treaties, and reparations of damages caused to the Mapuche by the government (source).1 More of these events help to add legitimacy to the Mapuche cause and make the government recognize their fight. ♦


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In January 2013, I was lucky enough to travel to Chile and see, listen, and learn from activists and professors alike who are fighting for the common good of their country. We learned from and listened to the Mapuche, a group silenced by legal, social, and economic oppression, about their struggle. I was humbled by their experience, as well as their kind and humorous dispositions despite the gravity of the situation they face each day.

After visiting community after community and seeing how their land was taken and exploited for profit by foreign corporations, I was interested in how land and water ownership changed since Pinochet. The Pinochet constitution changed laws on land ownership, undoing the socialist economic politics of Salvador Allende, and separating forestry, hunting, water, and land rights and ownership from personal territory. This has resulted in intensive privatization of natural resources, which has most adversely affected the Mapuche nation, who are less resilient to neocolonialism because of their socioeconomic status, rural location, and lack of political clout.

Using transitional justice as an analytical tool lets us understand and

identify the morals, priorities, and goals of previous regimes to pinpoint how they are stitched into current systems. Today, Mapuche land and water are being “legally” taken and exploited by foreign multi-national corporations as well as government, in part due to these constitutional policies from the Pinochet era. Of the communities we visited, the communities of Mininco and Coñaripe-Pangipulli show the various impacts

foreign corporations have on vulnerable communities such as the Mapuche. In Mininco, two paper companies have created social, environmental, and economic devastation through

neocolonialism, supported by the Chilean government. These companies plant eucalyptus and pine plantations, which are not native trees, meaning they grow and drink water at five times the rate of native species. In order to make the paper once the trees are harvested, toxic chemicals are used. Because there is no accountability on the part of these corporations, wastes from these paper plants are not properly contained, which has resulted in the contamination of land, water, food, animals, and people in Mininco. Many of its residents have left, according to Lonko (Chief) Victor, besides those who cannot

La Lucha: Land, Water, and Justice by Dave Yedid


28 afford it or have strong identity and physical ties to their homes. Although Victor is working diligently to combat the abusive practices of these corporations, there is still hopelessness and irreversible damage caused. Some residents of Mininco have left, but many poorer residents with no alternate residence have stayed, enduring sickness and human rights abuses by these paper companies.

The case of Coñaripe-Pangipulli is an anomaly in our visits to various Mapuche communities. Norwegian company S.N. Power, which has power-producing operations in many third-world countries, attempted to build a hydroelectric plant on a river in Maria Eugenia’s community. Maria Eugenia stated that the documentation process for government recognition of indigenous land rights is long and difficult, which allows investors with more financial capital to take control of resources in regions like Pangipulli that are isolated, vulnerable and have little technology. Furthermore, despite having government-recognized land ownership, the 1981 water code makes it so that they have land ownership but cannot claim many of their above or belowground water rights, despite reforms made to the water code in 2005. Maria Eugenia organized her community, contacted the media, and demanded meetings with the president of S.N. Power, who did not attend the meeting she called.

Eventually, with enough resistance, media attention, the help of Judge Juan Guzmán, and demand of accountability S.N. Power, Maria Eugenia and her community reached an agreement with S.N. Power to permanently halt building plans and remove their machinery from the valley. Maria noted that in Norway, indigenous communities

have water rights and agreements with municipalities and corporations, but that moral and legal standards deteriorate when business is exported to countries like Chile. Thanks to Maria Eugenia, Coñaripe-Pangipulli is free of hydroelectric power plants, but her community still faces the challenges of not receiving quality education and the influx of drugs from local tourism.

Strong, intelligent, and perseverant leaders such as Lonko Victor and Maria Eugenia take on the arduous task of fighting against multiple levels of oppression. It is their voices that make these important stories heard. Exploitation of the global south by the global north is a centuries-old narrative that continues today.

Lonko Victor stated, “There is hope, but much more Mapuche blood will be spilled before justice comes.” Similarly, Maria Eugenia stated, “Water is important to the Mapuche. Water is part of our lives, it is sacred. To them, it is just dinner.”

Case studies such as those in Mininco and Coñaripe-Pangipulli, Chile demonstrate suffering caused by the footprints of corruption left by the Pinochet regime, and show that law reform and prioritizing human rights over economic gain are necessary if progress is to be made. Clearly, corruption and exploitation do not end with regime shift. While it is idealistic to expect Chile to pause on their forward path toward economic prosperity to focus on injustice, citizens marginalized by government and society have untapped potential to build community and contribute to Chile’s internal and international success. It is most important to “crear poder popular,” create popular power, words that have become the slogan for many citizens in transitioning democracies like Chile in their ongoing struggle for recognition, rights, and justice. ♦


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September 11th: Remembering Chile and the Effects of US Foreign Policy by Madeline Stoeri

Twenty-eight years before America’s September 11th, 2001, the date September 11th became infamous in Chilean history. This past week, thousands of people took time to remember the events of September 11th, 2001 without knowing a thing about the first September 11th that America was involved in. Even in the modern, globalized world, Americans are still shockingly ignorant of world history and the repercussions of American foreign policy. If we are to avoid repeating past mistakes we must look to and learn from our own past as well as others’.

This week, the MIIS Amnesty International Club and Professor Jan Black hosted a showing of the film “Missing” to commemorate the Pinochet coup in Chile, sometimes called “the other September 11th.” Only two students and four community members showed up. Even though MIIS has offered three-week courses in and on Chile for the last few years, there is still a lack of awareness concerning America’s history of foreign policy interventions and human rights abuses in that country.

On Wednesday, the American edition of The Week, a weekly political magazine, published a list entitled “10 things you need to know today: September 11th, 2013.”

The list ranged from current foreign affairs (“1. Obama delays military action against Syria to focus on diplomacy”) to popular culture (“10. Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’ video sets a record”). The commemoration of the September 11th attacks on the United States ranked seventh. The fortieth anniversary of Chile’s September 11th CIA supported coup d’état that brought Pinochet

to power and initiated over a decade of state sponsored terrorism did not make the list.

Under Pinochet’s government, from 1973 to 1990, scholars believe that between 150,000 and 300,000 Chilean citizens were improperly imprisoned, tortured, and killed. According to another source, “In all, 40,018 people were killed, tortured, or imprisoned for political reasons. The government estimates 3,095 were killed during Pinochet's rule, including about 1,200 who were forcibly disappeared.”

Taking the most modest estimate of 4,295 people (3,095 people killed and 1,200 disappeared), Chile’s September 11th still claimed as many or more lives than the 2001 terrorist attacks that killed 2,753 people. Moreover, Chile’s September 11th was not an attack by outside terrorist forces; it was an attack on a democratically elected government by the country’s own military. And, it was an attack supported by the United States through covert operations.


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Some may argue that America has done all it can to right the wrongs that took place in Chile by declassifying CIA records and aiding in the Rettig and other truth commissions that sought to bring justice to those killed, injured, or disappeared in Chile. Yet in 2011, while visiting Chile, President Obama avoided a press question as to whether the United States would apologize for its support of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Others may argue that America’s September 11th affected us more directly and is thus deserving of greater concern from the public. Yet the actions of the United States abroad in such countries as Saudi Arabia have been cited as motivating factors for the hijackers. Clearly, U.S. foreign policy and interventions –overt or clandestine – in the affairs of other countries have a great impact on American citizens both at home and abroad.

Overall, Americans need to be more aware of what goes on in other countries

and the role of the U.S. in those countries. Chile is just one major example. The actions of the United States in support of the Pinochet regime affected the lives of thousands of Chileans as well as American citizens in Chile. As September 11th 2001 demonstrated, our government’s actions can have varied and often-unintended consequences that affect not only those abroad but also those at home. Thus, it is incumbent upon all citizens, and students of international affairs in particular, to be informed of our government’s actions and policies not only at home but also abroad. For MIIS students, this means trying to gather news from at least one international source and making the effort to inform each other and ourselves about important events in places to which we have connections. I intend to make a greater effort to help publicize the next MIIS J-term trip to Chile as well as to spread the knowledge I have gained about the country and its September 11th. What knowledge gaps can you fill? ♦


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En la primera de varias comunidades mapuches que estaremos visitando los próximos días, el Werkén que nos ha dado la bienvenida ahora nos pide que nos presentemos. Uno por uno, vamos saludando a la gente que hoy nos ha abierto las puertas para conversar sobre lo que se está viviendo en la región de la Araucanía. Llegado mi turno, doy un paso adelante, saludo y digo que soy “de aquí no más,” a lo cual el Werkén ríe “¡una chilena!” y el grupo entero, divertido, irrumpe en aplausos. Esta reacción, que en un comienzo me sorprende, de a poco va cobrando sentido. Y es que es poco lo que se escucha, lo que se habla de los mapuches en nuestro país. Es fácil olvidarse de la lucha interminable que se desarrolla en la Araucanía. Que esta chilena venga a aprender de los mapuches como parte de un grupo extranjero es medio tragicómico.

Chile es un país de mestizos. La gran mayoría de los chilenos tenemos sangre mapuche, patente en nuestro color de piel, nuestros rasgos, nuestro lenguaje. Pero lo que podría ser motivo de orgullo para nosotros muchas veces se intenta esconder, olvidar, borrar. Somos una sociedad marcadamente clasista, y por qué no decirlo, racista. Legado de la historia de aniquilación del pueblo mapuche, aún queda ese desdén por lo indígena, que se asocia con pobreza, flojera. La palabra “indio” sigue considerándose un insulto. No es de sorprenderse, entonces, que muchos chilenos nieguen sus raíces.

Poco y nada se habla sobre los pueblos originarios en nuestro país. En los libros de historia, los pocos párrafos dedicados a la eufemísticamente llamada “Pacificación de la Araucanía” no alcanzan a expresar el sufrimiento de un pueblo brutalmente diezmado y saqueado por la República de Chile. Miles de años de existencia y cientos de años de lucha quedan reducidos en los libros de historia a unas cuantas páginas, de las cuales podría deducirse fácilmente que el pueblo mapuche ha quedado en el pasado, o bien que ha sido efectivamente “chilenizado”. En la televisión, mientras tanto, al mapuche se lo criminaliza – cuando se lo menciona del todo. La imagen que se da es de un pueblo hostil en una zona permanentemente inestable. En ese contexto, la necesidad de imponer “orden” parece lógica, así como la existencia de una Ley Antiterrorista que permita procesar a los “extremistas” de manera eficiente.

Atreverse a escuchar by Victoria Marambio


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¿Es de sorprenderse, entonces, que los mapuches se declaren un pueblo distinto y separado del pueblo chileno? En un panel en que conversábamos con representantes no-mapuches del movimiento estudiantil y mapuches estudiantes o egresados de leyes, uno de los primeros usó la frase “nuestros pueblos indígenas.” Natividad, estudiante mapuche, tomó la palabra inmediatamente después: “Con todo respeto,” dijo, “nosotros no somos de ustedes. Los mapuches somos nuestro propio pueblo, no pertenecemos a nadie.”

Sin embargo, me parece que una de las vías al reconocimiento de los mapuches en Chile es justamente el reconocimiento de nuestras raíces comunes. Me parece peligroso trazar esa línea divisoria entre chilenos y mapuches, puesto que fomenta la desconfianza y el prejuicio entre los dos pueblos. Repito, Chile es un país de mestizos. Me parece que la fuerza conjunta de nuestros pueblos está en ese reconocimiento mutuo, permitiendo y celebrando las diferencias pero enfatizando siempre la base común. Suena bonito, sí. Pero ¿de dónde sacamos la voluntad? Es demasiado fácil quedarse en la estigmatización del otro, porque es cómodo, tener a alguien a quien culpar, alguien a quien mirar en menos. Sin embargo, quiero creer que gran parte del prejuicio contra el mapuche es fabricado. Lo enseñamos en el colegio, lo anunciamos por la tele.

“Es demasiado fácil quedarse en la estigmatización del otro, porque es cómodo, tener a alguien a quien culpar, alguien a quien mirar en menos.”

Si la gente escucha sólo una historia, una y otra vez, no tiene un incentivo para cuestionársela. Esto se puede ir cambiando de a poco, y desde abajo. Vimos un ejemplo de ello en La Victoria, con el canal local Señal 3. Ahí, con medios sencillos, un grupo de personas se rebela contra la falta de contenido de la televisión, y la falta de “la otra historia” en el caso del conflicto mapuche. Además de subir material interesante que encuentran en internet – documentales, películas y otros – ellos se encargan de hacer sus propios reportajes sobre la situación en La Araucanía. Nos mostraron clips de una protesta callejeras y otro de un allanamiento policial a una comunidad. Está claro que ésta tampoco es toda la historia, y que también hay un peligro en demonizar al Estado o a carabineros. Pero tiene un valor inmenso que las historias invisibles salgan a la luz, de una u otra forma. Es un comienzo y una promesa.

Consciente de que quedan muchas preguntan por responder, quisiera retomar esa anécdota que conté al comienzo – del aplauso que me dieron en esa comunidad por ser chilena. Es que a nivel simbólico, encuentro destacable que los mapuches sigan, después de todos estos años, más que dispuestos a compartir su cultura y entablar el diálogo con nosotros, los (otros) chilenos. Se dice de ellos que son un pueblo guerrero, y me he dado cuenta que realmente es así. Guerreros, porque no se rinden; porque están convencidos de la legitimidad de su demanda y luchan por ella, aferrándose a sus raíces, todo el tiempo buscando esa conversación con Chile que tanto hace falta. “¡Escúchennos!”, gritan. “Seguimos aquí.” Tenemos que atrevernos a escuchar. ♦


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Walking through Villa Grimaldi, listening to Judge Juan Guzman describe the inhumane atrocities that took place in the torture facilities we were standing in, it was difficult for me to fathom the true extent to which human rights were violated within that very compound and throughout the entire country, only 40 years ago. The more I heard and saw, the more difficult it was to comprehend. Toward the end of our visit, a Chilean man approached our group asking for the key to enter one of the rooms. After our group leader expressed uncertainty in passing the key to others, he shared with us that he himself was tortured at Villa Grimaldi, and he was back to visit.

When Pinochet came to power in 1973, his military dictatorship was branded by an unsurpassed level of political suppression and human rights violations against those who were suspected to be leftist or against Pinochet’s regime. Following the coup d’état, thousands of dissidents were tortured, exiled, killed, or missing, comprising los desaparecidos, the disappeared.

The repercussions of Pinochet’s rule are far from uprooted from Chilean society, however levels and methods of remembrance of these atrocities vary from person to person. While walking through the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Santiago, an elderly Chilean woman approached our group, waving an old photograph of her husband, one of the desaparecidos, and told us that she visits the museum frequently in his remembrance and lives with the thoughts and

Living with the Memory by Noosha Aftahi uncertainty every day of her life.

Active education and memory of Pinochet’s rule is not something that all Chileans choose to partake in. Several citizens who directly or indirectly experienced these atrocities choose to wash away the memories and not speak of what happened two decades ago.

Although Pinochet’s reign ended in 1990, the pain and personal horrors that came out of that era are still deeply rooted in Chilean society. A truth commission in

1992 found Augusto Pinochet and his government responsible for the disappearance and death of 3,197 people. The effects of these atrocities are not limited to the victims themselves, but their families and loved ones who

carry the emotional burden of these memories for years to come. While painful, and for many unfathomable, it is of utmost importance to share these lessons with the Chilean youth in order to avoid forgetting or neglecting the memories of this dictatorship as the firsthand generation passes and Chilean society continues to grow. Each citizen has developed their own individual and collective methods of dealing with the memories. However, as time goes on and new generations emerge, a comprehensive education of this history is imperative in order to retain and embed the invaluable human rights lessons learned from these brutalities into the future development of the Chilean state. ♦


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Recommended Readings

A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet by Pamela Constable and Arturo Valenzuela. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991.

The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice by Roger Burbach. London: Zed Books.

Democracy After Pinochet: Politics, Parties, and Elections in Chile by Alan Angell. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2007.

The Pinochet File by Peter Kornbluh. New York: The New Press, 2003.

En el Borde del Mundo: Memorias del Juez que Proceso a Pinochet by Juan Guzmán Tapia. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2006.

The Politics of Human Rights Protection: Moving Innovation Upstream with Impact Assessment by Jan Knippers Black. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, Inc., 2008

Latin America: Its Problems and its Promise by Jan Knippers Black. 4th Ed. Rev., Boulder: Westview Press, 2005.

State Terrorism in Latin America: Chile, Argentina, and International Human Rights by Thomas Wright. Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.

"Transitional (In)Justice" Chile Seminar Report, January 2013

Documents

practicum page

global majority page

human rights abuses

human rights groups

human rights protection

human rights watch

practicum participants

practicum coordinators