CHILE-MAPUCHE

The situation of the Mapuche people ("people of the land") in Chile is very complex and sensitive.
As native population, the Mapuche have the right to recognition and respect for their cultural identity, their language, their traditions, and their history.
However, the latter has always been marked by conflicts with the Chilean state and assimilation policies.
The Mapuche are the only native people in Chile who have managed to resist the invasion by the Spanish colonizers. For centuries they have been fighting for the recovery and claim of the territory that is rightfully theirs.
The main conflict concerns, in particular, the control and management of the wallmapu ("all Mapuche territory"), rich in natural resources.
Mining companies and multinational corporations have often ignored the rights of the Mapuche, thus leading to a series of riots and protests.
At the same time, the national policies of economic development, modernization and alignment to European and Western standards have neglected the needs and demands of the Mapuche people, causing social and economic inequalities.
Within this framework we find four companies (Norwegian and Danish) that produce feed for salmons in Pargua, province of P.to Montt, southern Chile.

We travel for two hours from Valdivia,  crossing dirt roads and taking a ferry in order to get to the entrance of Fundo Punta Galera, located in Chaihuín, an area of Los Rios. This vast Fundo is a large private estate which was "regained" a few weeks ago by the Mapuche community called Lonko Pablo Nauco.
To show it, a Mapuche flag is fluttering at the entrance, and a banner announces that the community has managed to regain the land: the bolt securing the gate seems to convey the message "no one can enter here anymore".
The community is very suspicious because they fear that the "owners" of the large estate or the police may take action to get the land back. However, we are allowed to enter thanks to the contact we established with the werkén, i.e. the spokesperson of the community.
After crossing another dirt road, surrounded on one side by rich eucalyptus vegetation and on the other by the powerful view of the Pacific Ocean and its virgin beaches, we finally meet the community.
After several handshakes and a more in-depth introduction of who they are, some community members begin to tell us the story of their families and their ancestral lands.
The territory where we stand - which has always been inhabited by Mapuche Lafkenche communities of the coast - was donated by the Chilean State to a French noblewoman in 1922. Fortunately, she never took an interest in the matter and never set foot on "her land", therefore the sale of the land did not have any impact on the life of the indigenous community.

Subtitles in Italian, English and Spanish

Alberto Curamil is the longko (traditional authority) of the indigenous mapuche community of Lof Radalko in Curucatìn, in the Chilean region of Araucanía, and a member of the organization Alianca Territorial Mapuche (ATM, Mapuche Territorial Alliance).
Curamil is one of the main promoters of local activism in defence of the environment and the territorial, socio-cultural and economic rights of Mapuche communities, which oppose the intensive economic exploitation of their ancestral lands by commercial companies. In 2019, he was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his role in the civil society campaign that prevented the construction of two hydroelectric plants on the Cautìn River, sacred to the Mapuche and a fundamental source of water for the inhabitants of the area.
Between 2018 and 2019, Curamil has spent 15 months in preventive detention on the charge of armed robbery, for which the prosecution had asked for a sentence of almost 50 years. In application of the special anti-terrorism law, which severely restricts the fair trial guarantees of defendants, the witness evidence provided against the Mapuche leader remained anonymous. Several Mapuche associations and human rights organisations condemned the political nature of the proceeding and the harsh punitive treatment, and in 2019 Curamil was acquitted of all charges due to substantial absence of evidence.
Despite continuing to be the target of various intimidatory acts because of his activism, Curamil has never interrupted his commitment to the environment and the rights of Mapuche communities. At the end of 2021, on behalf of the communities of Curucatìn, he publicly denounced the approval of a project for the construction of a geothermal power plant at the foot of the Tolhuaca volcano, contesting the absence of an environmental impact assessment and the lack of consultation of the Mapuche communities affected.

On 29 September 2021, in the context of the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva, the Associazione Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII issued an oral statement expressing concern about the situation of the Mapuche indigenous people in Chile, denouncing the discrimination, violence and abuse of power suffered by the Mapuche, whose basic human rights are constantly violated by the Chilean State.