| January 29, 2008 Protest in solidarity with Patricia Troncoso and the Mapuche nation New York, USA |
  The protest on solidarity with our lamngen Patricia Troncoso and with the mapuche nation in general was done this morning in the city of New York at 10 am as programmed. A group of activists gathered in solidarity with the mapuche political prisoners. The group started marching pacifically towards the Chilean Consulate of New York, outside of the building there was a big number of police contingent, including FBI and federal agents. We weren't allowed inside by the police contingent, so we protested outside. After negotiations with the federal agents, two of us escorted by the police were allowed into the consul's office. Once we were in the office, the support continued outside the building, while a document sign by several organizations and activists was given to the Chilean consul. The consul said he was warned by the secret agents of the US about the manifestation and that later in the week he heard of it from the Chilean newspaper "La Segunda". Later on, after the activist spoke with him and told him about the situation affecting the mapuche, he signed an official document where he said he was going to send our demands to the Chilean Government. The manifestation ended as it started, pacifically, but we announced that we will continue making events in peaceful means on solidarity to help break through the privatized media and spread the word about the problems affecting the mapuche nation. Even though Patricia Troncoso stopped the hunger strike, the militarization of mapuche communities still continues, the environmental degradation of the mapuche communities is still active, the utilization of the anti-terrorist law hasn't ended against the mapuche, the persecution and assassination of mapuche activists continues (Marco Aurelio Treuer police who shot Alex Lemun in 2002 is still an active police) as there is no real will from the Chilean Government to negotiate from a perspective of nation to nation, and not with paternalistic and repressive politics. Attached please find the document which was delivered to the Chilean Consul and a picture of the protest (to see more pictures visit our web site). During the next days we will put video recordings in our web site. http://mapucheinternationalsolidaritynetwork.blogspot.com We thank you for the diffusion. |