{"id":11437,"date":"2012-08-02T16:12:52","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T23:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11437"},"modified":"2012-08-02T16:12:52","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T23:12:52","slug":"children-injured-in-police-crackdown-on-chiles-mapuche-indians-it-seem-always-tied-back-to-us-weapons-and-security-forces-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=11437","title":{"rendered":"Children Injured in Police Crackdown on Chile\u2019s Mapuche Indians – It seem always tied back to US Weapons and Security Forces Training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children Injured in Police Crackdown on Chile\u2019s Mapuche Indians<\/strong>
\nBy Marianela Jarroud – IPS<\/p>\n

SANTIAGO, Jul 27 2012 (IPS) – \u201cWe have been trampled by this racist Chilean state, which oppresses us. The police force represses all Mapuche people\u2026they shoot at us in cold blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

This comment came from a 16-year-old boy describing a police crackdown of which he and other native peasant farmers were victims in the region of Araucan\u00eda, 680 km south of Santiago, during an eviction of several indigenous communities occupying land that they claim as their ancestral property.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is how children in communities involved in land conflicts feel, because they have grown up in the midst of violence,\u201d Ana Cort\u00e9s, the head of the ANIDE children\u2019s rights foundation, told IPS.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe adolescent who gave this account belongs to a community that for years has been trying to recover territory that would make it possible for them to survive and make a living. Racism and repression are all he has known from the state, as reflected by what he says,\u201d she added.
\nRelated IPS Articles<\/p>\n

RIGHTS-CHILE: New Wave of Mapuche Land Conflicts
\n RIGHTS-CHILE: Mapuche Land Conflict Stained With Blood
\n \u201cWe Tripantu\u201d, the Mapuche people\u2019s new year celebration<\/p>\n

This complaint about police repression published by the Mapuche language on-line daily Werken offers concrete testimony of the escalation of violence over the last few days, in which a dozen people were arrested and several were injured, including five children.<\/p>\n

The conflict broke out on Monday Jul. 23, when residents of Temucuicui, a Mapuche community, were evicted by Carabineros police from the La Romana and Montenegro forestry plantations, where the Mininco and Arauca logging companies operate.<\/p>\n

According to indigenous spokespersons, the native demonstrators were holding a peaceful protest and occupation to draw attention to the government of right-wing President Sebasti\u00e1n Pi\u00f1era\u2019s failure to live up to promises made in the context of the long-running Mapuche struggle for the recuperation of their ancestral land.<\/p>\n

The land, they say, forms part of the territory that was seized from their ancestors in the second half of the 19th century during a military invasion process known as the \u201cpacification of Araucan\u00eda\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Mapuche, Chile\u2019s largest indigenous group, number nearly one million in this country of over 16 million people. The struggle for their rights to what they claim as their ancestral lands in the south of the country has frequently spilled over into violence, as they clash with extractive industries and logging companies.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s occupation was carried out by some 60 members of the Mapuche community. But some 200 police were sent in to evict the families, using tear gas and shooting both pellets and shotgun bullets, according to witnesses.<\/p>\n

Twelve people, including three minors, were arrested, and denounced that they were the victims of abuses, beatings, and sexual harassment by the Carabineros.<\/p>\n

The repression continued a few hours later outside the hospital in the nearby community of Collipulli, where police opened fire on a group of Mapuche people who were waiting for the demonstrators being treated for their injuries.<\/p>\n

A 12-year-old girl was shot in the back with pellets, and a 16-year-old boy was hit in the head with rubber bullets.<\/p>\n

The attack prompted President Pi\u00f1era to announce an investigation into the role of the Carabineros in the incident, although he emphasised that his government \u201csupports the police action 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Anide Foundation, between 2001 and 2011, Mapuche children between nine months and 16 years of age have been the target of rubber bullets, pellets, tear gas, and beatings by the police. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Children Injured in Police Crackdown on Chile\u2019s Mapuche Indians By Marianela Jarroud – IPS SANTIAGO, Jul 27 2012 (IPS) – \u201cWe have been trampled by this racist Chilean state, which oppresses us. The police force represses all Mapuche people\u2026they shoot at us in cold blood.\u201d This comment came from a 16-year-old boy describing a police more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[3307],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11438,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437\/revisions\/11438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}