Machi Celestino is in serious condition having dropped more than 18 kms and has had several instances of organ failure since the hunger strike began on May 4th 2020, while others have been admitted to hospital with relatives and loved ones fearing the worst.(1) As a Mapuche spiritual leader, Machi Celestino, has undergone several hunger strikes in the last few years which have had lasting health effects, (2) many which are irreversible. “Prison is torture for him, since he needs to be in direct contact with his people and nature [to fulfill his spiritual duty]” says Giovanna Tafilo, Lawentuchefe (Medicine woman) and current spokesperson for the Machi Celestino Cordova Support Network. “His defenses are down [from the hunger strike], and could easily catch the Corona virus,” Talifo said, as COVID-19 has swept through the country and its prisons. (1)
In 2014, he was convicted to 18 years in prison, allegedly for “terrorist arson” resulting in death of Werner Luchsinger and his wife Vivianne Mackay, both large landed estate owners on stolen land in Wallmapu. International organizations such as Amnesty International have denounced the conviction of Machi Celestino and the general implementation of Anti-terror legislation in Chile against Mapuche land defenders as a pretext to criminalize indigenous land claims.(2)
Despite the gravity of the situation, Chilean President Sebastian Piñera has thus far completely ignored the hunger strike, with several news outlets comparing these current events with the actions of Margaret Thatcher in 1981, resulting in the death of Irish Republican Bobby Sands. (3)
Meanwhile, the Chilean government has only increased militarization of traditional Mapuche territory during the pandemic. On June 23rd, Minister of Defense Alberto Espina announced dispatching the armed forces to maintain “law and order” after a series of Mapuche land reclamations and actions in the area in the middle of the pandemic. This would be the first time that the Chilean government has called on the military to participate in the arrest and control of civilian crime since the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.(4)
We call for international solidarity with the Mapuche Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike and the immediate demilitarization of traditional Mapuche territory NOW!
FREE ALL MAPUCHE & CHILEAN POLITICAL PRISONERS!!
DEMILITARIZATION OF WALLMAPU NOW!
AMULEPE TAIÑ WEICHAN!
WEUWAIÑ!
WCCC TORONTO
teleSUR English Redfish Idle No More Red Power Earth First! Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics It's Going Down Sub.Media Mapuche ta Inchiñ Enlace Mapuche Internacional Red Internacional en defensa del Pueblo Mapuche Unicorn Riot ANTICONQUISTA Werkén Noticias Resumen Prensa Opal Capucha Informativa Intercontinental Cry Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research Reclaim Turtle Island Agent NDN Treaty Six Grassroots Movement No Dakota Access Pipeline Global Solidarity Campaign Standing Rock Dakota Access Pipeline Opposition World Indigenous News (WIN) World Network of Indigenous and Local Community Land and Sea Managers
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