Weekly Report - 8 July 2003

Relations between the government and the Mapuche people have hit a new low after the supreme court overturned an appeals court ruling that three Mapuche leaders be acquitted of charges of terrorism crimes. The accused -the loncos (literally headmen) Aniceto Norí­n and Pascual Pichún and an indigenist activist, 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 had been 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. 

The Mapuche leadership has rejected the supreme court ruling and accused the government, which was one of the appellants, of 'another set-up 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 Araucaní­a.