December 14, 2006
Declaration of Mapuche Political Prisoner from the Lebu Prison

In a public declaration submitted from the Lebu prison, Mapuche Political Prisoner Ociel Santi, of the community Nicolas Calbullanca, of the Lleu Lleu sector of the province of Arauco, makes a call out to all human rights organizations and to Mapuche communities to bear conscience of the repression on behalf of the State of Chile; to continue with their demands for the collective rights that they hold as ancestral people; and to refuse the hand-outs from the State.

Source: RedChem, Meli Wixan Mapu

Public Communiqué

I, Ociel Santi, Mapuche Political Prisoner from Arauco, would like to share with the national and international public, human rights organizations, media outlets and particularly with civil society and the Mapuche people, the following:

We the Mapuches have a way of thinking that is rooted in respect. We have a system of life that is different from the non-Mapuche world - which has not recognized the humiliation and marginalization that our people have suffered for over 500 years. Nevertheless, in many sectors of the wallmapu there remains a permanent demand for our political and cultural rights.

Our communities, wounded by the loss of territory, even in a so-called democracy, suffer physical and psychological repression, in the form of terrifying threats and permanent political persecution.

Therefore, it is extremely urgent that the government of Chile start to
show some signs of a rapid solution, with a minimal willingness to
remedy
the situation in Mapuche communities. Enough is enough of imprisoning
Mapuches and forcing people underground. It is unreasonable for the
state
of Chile to insist on presenting band aid solutions where fundamental
needs persist, such as the recognition of territorial, social and
political rights. The time is now for the authorities to realize that
the
means of assimilation in the form of subsidies, projects, and
government
programs of integration only destroy our way of life in the
communities,
and directly attack our autonomy and our legitimate right to free
self-determination.

For this, I would like to call on the public, on human rights
organizations, and on the communities that hold a real consciousness of
the violence and the oppression of the State of Chile, to demand our
collective rights that we hold as ancestral people, and to not accept
the
handouts of the state.

Lastly, I want to affirm that I am not a common political prisoner, but
rather a victim of the criminalization and dispossession that is lived
by
my Mapuche people. I demand my freedom, because it is unjust that they
assign me five charges, of which none are true or provable, only for
being
Mapuche and for possessing clear principles that are founded in the
restitution of my people with the aim of attaining its liberation.

Lebu Prison, 2006 December 12th
Arauko Mongen Palei !!!
MARICHIWEW !!!