In the following we publish an unofficial translation of an article from the Brazilian newspaper "A Nova Democracia (AND)". AND is run by different revolutionary and progressive forces and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the Communist Party of Brazil (Red Faction).
Chile: train set on fire, congressman's land burned by peasants amid military intervention
A train laden with cellulose derails and is set on fire by farmers in Victoria, in the La Araucanía region, southern Chile,
Nov. 2, 2021. photo: ATON CHILE/AFP
In Chile, Mapuche peasants continue to fight for their land, occupying latifundia and rejecting the military intervention in the south of the country ordered by reactionary President Sebastian Piñera on October 12. Between late October and early November, dozens of sabotage actions against latifundia, property of the imperialist big bourgeoisie, were carried out by peasant organizations.
Read more : Chile: Peasants carry out sabotage actions against military intervention in the south
Context
The intensification of the actions of the Mapuche peasants takes place in the midst of the struggle of the Chilean masses for the defense of their rights. These actions also take place in the midst of the " constitutionalization " that aims to concretize a new agreement between the Chilean ruling classes, expressed in the new Magna Carta.
Two years earlier, the popular uprising of 2019 took place, shaking not only the government of Sebastián Piñera, but the entire old Chilean bourgeois landowning state. The popular masses have not given up their struggle despite the maneuvers of the ruling classes, who tried to deceive part of the masses with opportunism during the process of drafting a new constitution (the previous one was still from the time of Pinochet's military regime). As a direct result of the gigantic mobilization of the masses at that time, even the recent report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) stated that 92% of Chileans believe that their country is governed in the interest of a few and not in the interest of the majority of the population.
What began as economic and then political demands in the major urban centers has increasingly translated into a struggle for land in the country's rural areas. In Chile's inland cities, the centuries-long struggle of Chilean peasants for a piece of land to live and work has been advanced.
The targets of the protests are the landowners, the mining companies and the imperialists who are appropriating the peasants' land. And in the current political situation in Chile, these demonstrations also have the character of a struggle against military intervention.
Train with pulp is set on fire
Mapuche peasants derailed a train loaded with pulp and then set it on fire to sabotage the production of latifundium. The action took place around 5 a.m. on November 2 near the town of Victoria (La Araucanía) and expressed a clear rejection of military intervention in the southern region of the country. A banner reading, "Out with the militiamen! Freedom for the P.P.M! [Mapuche political prisoners]. The two train drivers, who were on the train before the action, were not injured.
The train derailed by the Mapuches was loaded with pulp obtained from the deforestation of peasant land.
The police officers, who are now working with the military officers of the reactionary Chilean army, have stated that they were "caught off guard" and that there are not enough officers to cover the entire "risk zone." They further explain that: "We are dealing with an adversary who has taken us by surprise in a place that is difficult to access," and that on the ground "there is also no visibility of Route 5 South," the place where the action took place.
Peasents set fire to bus belonging to billion-dollar conglomerate
The following day, March 10, in Arauco province (municipality of Lota), a bus belonging to the large forestry company Jordan was set on fire at 7 a.m. as it was on its way to pick up workers from the project to modernize and expand the Arauco plant (Mapa). The vehicle was intercepted by farmers who led away the driver of the empty bus and then set it on fire.
The Jordanian megacorporation's customers include banks such as Santander and Banco de Chile. The Mapa project, on the other hand, aims to expand the mining and production of cellulose in Arauco.
The project belongs to the Angelini Group, which has invested $2.350 billion (almost R$13 billion) in the region. The group wanted to increase pulp production from the current 800,000 tons to 2.1 million tons per year. The "joint stock company" Celulose Arauco and Constituição, part of the Angelini Group, which is also part of the Mapa project, owns six pulp mills in Chile and Peru, as well as wood mills in Argentina and Brazil.
Interior Minister Rodrigo Delgado said that the fire of the bus "attracts attention" because it occurred outside the area where the largest actions take place. At the same time, another bus was used to disrupt traffic on Route 160 in the same place.
The omnibus of a Jordanian company is set on fire. Photo: Reproduction
Mapuche youth murdered by reactionary forces
Funeral of the young Yordan. Photo: @Julio_jara_wertha
A 22-year-old Mapuche peasant, Yordan Llempi Machacan, was murdered at close range by a Chilean naval officer on November 4. Yordan's partner, Danitza Herrera, was at the young man's home at the time of the crime and denounced that the police lied when they justified the peasant's death. Police claimed the young man was hit by a "stray bullet" while trying to break up a barricade set up on a nearby road when they were attacked by armed Mapuches in broad daylight.
According to Danitza, who was in the backyard of the young man's home, the two were talking in front of her house when the military "started shooting like crazy," hitting Yordan. Herrera also denounced that after the attack on him, the police officers who were on the scene prevented the immediate transport of the injured young man to a medical center: "They went into the street, they didn't let him go to Cañete, and they didn't want to take him to the post in Huentelolén. They stopped him". She also pointed out that this would not have happened if they had taken him to Cañete, the nearest town. He lost a lot of blood".
When asked about the version of the police and the military (who claim that there was a "terrorist ambush"), she replied, "That's a lie, they started shooting, they blocked the road, it wasn't an ambush by members of the Mapuche community, that's a lie!".
WHAT HAPPENED ? - Different communities gathered last night to remember the young #Mapuche community member Yordan Llempi Machacan, who was killed by a marine in the patio of his house.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
FOTO | Ayllen _ Sayai pic.twitter.com/Rh8CMOY7YN
— Werken Noticias (@info_werken) November 7, 2021
Mapuche guerrilla group calls for military to abandon territory
The Waychan Auka Mapu (WAM) guerrilla group, which means "fight for rebel territory" in an unofficial translation in Mapudungun, the Mapuche language, released a video on April 11 in which its members appear heavily armed in the jungle. The guerrillas begin the video with the greeting Marri marri to the pu machi (religious authority, advisor and protector of the Mapuche people), to the lonko (head of each family group), to the pu werken (messengers and voice of the community), to the pu wunen (brothers), to the pu weichave (warriors), to the pu compuche (all the people) and to the pu che meli witran mapu (people of the land of the four places).
They address the Mapuche people, the peoples in international resistance, the national and international public, as weichave (warriors) of the organization Weichan Auka Mapu (WAM), who inhabit the territory of the lavkenche (people of the sea), explaining that the current state of emergency with the presence of army troops, naval infantry and police in their historic wallmapu (land) is nothing new for our people. They point out that it is a "strategic political plan to combat insurgency, implemented by the current government, but pushed by the economic powers with interests in the area, which are the real power behind the political class that has ruled, rules and wants to continue to rule in Chile."
The guerrillas state that their "kuivikecheyem" (ancestors) who support the "weichan" (war) against the Inca invaders, the Spanish and the Chilean state, are asking the new police and military forces, "watchdogs of the rich," to leave their territory as they are defeated by the "armed force of the Mapuche people."
They also claim that a coup-mongering extreme right is being strengthened and a servile and yellow "center left" is being weakened, once again putting itself at the service of the "owners of Chile" through its treasonous actions and its failure to respond to the worthy demands of the people. The latter, in turn, saw their interests threatened and pressured the government to use the military in the "wallmapu" (country).
The WAM guerrillas also reaffirm their revolutionary commitment to sabotage the capitalist interests that are destroying and devastating the "ñuke mapu" (mother earth). As well as armed actions that coincide with the needs of their loved ones (family clans) and communities, guarantors and holders of a true territorial legitimacy.
Afterwards, they chant the slogans: For the weichave [warriors] who fell in battle! Freedom for the Mapuche political prisoners! Freedom for the political prisoners of the Chilean people! Milicos and pacos [policemen] out of wallmapu [country]! Ñielole mapu muleay aukan weichan auka mapu!
With guns raised, they fire shots and shout: Marichiweu! Marichiweu! (Ten times and a thousand times we will win!).
2° parte del vídeo de Waychan Auka Mapu "Perros guardianes de los ricos": encapuchados exigen a fuerzas abandonar territorio mapuche pic.twitter.com/By4YdUULYw
— Werken Noticias (@info_werken) November 4, 2021
Machines and house of the landowner burned down
A house, three sheds, machinery and vehicles belonging to Congressman Jorge Rathgeb were set on fire on November 5 by the Mapuche peasant organization Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM). Jorge Rathberg was governor of Malleco province and regional ministerial secretary for agriculture in La Araucanía in the government of President Sebastián Piñera.
On the ground, a message was left by the CAM: Forestry companies, out of Mapuche territory! Milicos out! Our dead will be avenged. Free the Mapuche political prisoners (PPM). Wewaiñ marichiwew [We will win, ten times we will win, in the Mapuche language].
The message was signed by the Organ of Territorial Resistance (ORT) Mangillwenu, one of the armed divisions of the CAM. The action took place one day after the murder of Yordan Llempi Machacan at close range by the Navy, and just hours after the leader of the CAM, Héctor Llaitul, declared in response to the murder of the young man that "everything that must be burned will be burned."
Yankee and Canadian imperialist forestry enterprise is sabotaged
Hancock's forestry equipment burned down. Photo: Works News
At 9 p.m. on May 11, armed Mapuche peasants from CAM burned two machines on the site and a tool shed. Three people who were in the facilities on site were sent away. The action took place at the Forestal Hancock compound in Los Ríos. The group's action was carried out by ORT - Williche Millalikan.
Forestal Hancock is a subsidiary of the Canadian and U.S. imperialist Manulife Financial Corporation and John Hancock Financial, respectively. Manulife Financial Corporation has several investments in logging around the world.
According to El Ranco newspaper, the imperialist company's presence in the municipality of La Unión began in 2019, when Masisa Forestry (Switzerland) sold its forestry assets. The land currently owned by Hancock covers 62,000 hectares in the regions of Los Ríos, Los Lagos and southern Argentina.
The shed of the National Forestry Corporation burned down
Also on November 5, a shed of the National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) was set on fire in Lautaro. The Conaf is a forestry corporation of the old Chilean state responsible for the creation of "national parks." The peasants denounce that the government, through Conaf, is appropriating their land.
The action took place one day after the death of Yordan Llempi Machacan. A message was left at the scene saying that the action was to avenge the death of the young man.
More than 30 people throw stones at a police station in La Araucanía
A group of about 30 peasants from the municipality threw stones at a sub-delegation of the town of Ercilla, in the same region of La Araucanía, on the night of November 5. Afterwards, the group erected a burning barricade on Route 5. Together with the army, the police dispersed the peasants.
