Courageous Mapuche need our support

My Chilean comrades are helping organise a meeting on 500 years of indigenous resistance in Latin America Latin America: 500 years of resistance with a focus on the Mapuche struggle, I have also pasted a letter in the Morning Star on the Mapuche struggle....my friend Hugo Blanco has been telling people here in the UK about the struggle of the indigenous in Chile, currently in the middle of a hunger strike, they defeated the Incas and the Spanish and took on Pinochet, yes the real 9/11 was a conspiracy against the indigenous and workers and peasants in Chile.

Latin America today is at the forefront of the struggle against economic and political
domination in the globalised world. The struggle has never ceased. During the past
518 years the indigenous peoples of the continent have been fighting for their land
and their cultural identity. Recently, the first ever indigenous President was
elected in Bolivia, a country that achieved independence and was named after its
liberator, Simon Bolivar, who, nearly 200 years ago, envisioned a united continent
free from foreign domination. This event will celebrate the spirit of resistance
of its indigenous people, as represented by the current struggle of the Mapuche
in Chile, and the legacy of the ideas of Bolivar for the 21st century.

Event Info

Mon 11th October 7:30pm
Bolívar Hall
54 Grafton Way
London
W1T 5DL
United Kingdom
Free




Courageous Mapuche need our support
Tuesday 21 September 2010 Morning Star
Throughout Latin America the struggle to achieve respect for the civil rights of indigenous peoples has been increasing in recent years.

Bolivian President Evo Morales is the first indigenous person to head a Latin American government and throughout the continent indigenous movements are becoming increasingly forthright in defending their lands and way of life.

In Chile the valiant Mapuche people who resisted Spanish conquest for four centuries had their lands violently expropriated by the Chilean state in the late 19th century. Ever since they have struggled to regain it.

Under Pinochet over 300 Mapuche were killed for resisting further land seizures.

Today they continue to be the victims of state repression.

In the last few years three Mapuche have been killed by police, including a 14-year-old boy. Nobody has been imprisoned for these crimes.

The Chilean government, using draconian legislation dating from Pinochet's regime, effectively denies them the right to protest against the abject poverty and exclusion they have historically endured.

Today they face a legal system that tries them in both military and civilian courts - an anomaly unique in Latin America and not accepted in international law.

In a desperate act to draw the world's attention to their plight several Mapuche prisoners, jailed under Chile's notorious anti-terror laws, have been on hunger strike since July 12 and are in danger of serious damage to their health if the hunger strike continues much longer.

They are demanding that the new Chilean government repeal the anti-terrorism law under which they have been convicted, end the system of simultaneous trials before both military tribunal and civilian courts and end the militarisation of the ancestral Mapuche lands.

Please support these courageous Mapuche prisoners by writing a letter of protest to the Chilean embassy, 37-41 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9JK.

The Mapuche Support Group UK
London