Speaking at the end of a ten-day visit to Chile, Stavenhagen expressed concern at the fact that some Mapuche leaders had been imprisoned for demonstrations over land rights, although some of these had been violent. He said that 'there exists a tendency to criminalise or penalise what is a social protest movement' when the only real solution to the problem lies 'in dialogue and negotiation'.
Relations between the government and the Mapuches hit a new low last month after the supreme court overturned an appeals court ruling that three Mapuche leaders be absolved from terrorist crimes. The accused - the lonkos (Mapuche chiefs) Ancieto Norín and Pascual Pichún, and an activist for indigenous peoples, Patricia Troncoso - were imprisoned in December 2001. The appeals court ordered their release on 9 April but the supreme court ruled that it 'did not consider all the evidence'.
The three are accused of setting light to a building and a pine forest in Traiguén in the southern region of Araucanía. The building belonged to former agriculture minister Juan Agustín Figueroa (1990-1994), a member of the constitutional tribunal and president of the Fundación Pablo Neruda. Indigenous activists have long been engaged in land disputes throughout the southern region. Araucanía is claimed by the Mapuche as ancestral land.
The Mapuche leadership has rejected the supreme court ruling and accused the government, which was one of the appellants, of 'another setup and political connivance' against the Mapuche people. The government coalition, which has been ruling since 1990, has failed to keep its promise to the Mapuches for constitutional recognition of 'indigenous peoples'. To be fair this is not through lack of trying. Government proposals to this end were rejected by the senate in May. Since then, armed Mapuche activists have moved in on nearly 20 privately owned estates in Araucania.
Stavenhagen demanded that the Mapuches be recognised by the constitution and called on the government to make a far greater effort at integrating them into the country's cultural, economic, and social institutions.
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