01.00.00.00

Court

Does or doesn't this action threaten,  does or doesn't it interfere with the rights of these people  who have been living here for centuries and centuries where they now want to build the hydro electric plant.

Cut away moustached Rodriguez

I had the opportunity your honour to be there with the Mapuche community at Ralco a few days ago.  The hopelessness there is terrible.

Map. Santiago. Bio Bio

Nic walks back to tree

01.12

Nic walks wide in snow

"The name of this pine tree is called Pehuen.  That's why we are called the Pehuanche.  That's how we got our name.  We pray to the Peheun-Aracacaria tree.

"We will always look after these trees because they are our spirit - from the roots.  We will never lose them.

01.37

Nic feet to face in snow

This woman lives in a country just emerging from 20 years of death squads and dictatorship.  You still don't draw attention to yourself in Chile but Nicolasa Quitreman is - and the future of Indian land rights will rest upon her resolve.

Waterfall

"The river down there is the Bio Bio, running so freely around here but over there it's being blocked, that's not right.  That shouldn't be so,  the God "Chachao" left the river there.  The river shouldn't be stopped, it should run freely like the air.  Nobody blocks the air."

Nicolasa's tribe, the Pehuenche are part of Chile's indigenous Mapuche people.  She has lodged a native title claim to prevent her land being flooded by a hydro scheme and to the government's horror it appears that a law she might succeed.  If she does she will not only save her land but will set a precedent that will protect all Indigenous land in Chile.

02.53

Alejandro Jadresic       Minister for Energy

Of course we need to protect the Pehuenches but we need to.....to develop.

As a country we cannot take a decision to preserve it... I mean put it in the freezer and  leave it as it is ..... I mean the level of poverty we have in Chile is so big that we need to develop.

Pigs etc. Nic and Berta

Nicolasa lives with her sister Berta along the banks of the Bio Bio and they've become the spanner in the works for the ambitions of Chile's largest private corporation - the Endessa power company.

They were the first Pehuenche family to openly declare that they will never give up their land to Endesa and ultimately they may be  the last...... But they know  and the government  knows and Endesa knows that it will take just one successful land claim to stop the dam....

04.06

Smoke in rafters?  Berta

These men have always come from very far away.  To take the land away from the Pehuenche Mapuche people because they say the Pehuenche Mapuche people don't know what's going on.  Of course we know.  And now these people are doing the same (thing again) to us.

Hut ext, then int

Nicolasa and Berta's home is probably the most important piece of land In Chile today.  The battle to possess it will not only be a defining moment for indigenous land rights it will test the independence of the legal system itself - a system still staggering to it's feet after years of dictatorship.

05.18

Court int. End lawyer

Rodriguez:  With your honour's permission, I address you on behalf of the Endesa.

V.O

Roberto Celedon representing the sisters and the Pehuenche was a victim and prisoner of the previous fascist regime.

Pablo Rodriguez for Endesa was one of it's founders.

Together these lawyers represent not just 2 sides of a land rights case but 2 sides of Chile's past that have yet to be resolved.

Too many the outcome of this case will decide whether Chile continues to move towards democracy or bows to the economic power of those who previously ruled here.

The preliminary hearings have begun in trials that are likely to continue for the next 6 months.

Court

These lands according to the Indigenous Law are under a protection scheme by which they cannot be alienated encumbered or seized or acquired.

06.29

V.O

When civilian government returned to Chile in 1990 a slate of new laws were passed including an Indigenous Law which recognised in a general sense the Mapuches prior ownership of land.

Women on horses

Most Chileans assumed the Indigenous Law was a gesture of goodwill but to the Mapuche it's terms were unambiguous - no one could take their land anymore - not the government and least of all a private power company.

06.59

Minister interview

Q:  Well, why have this legislation, why have this land rights, native land rights legislation if you can override it so easily?  I mean is it a case simply of saying you can have your land unless we want it for something else.

A:  I mean this is a general principle not only in Chile... I mean that's the principle of ..... er the common good....

Q:  I'm  sure it will be good for Chile but I doubt it will be good for the Pehuenche, particularly as a precedent for removing the Pehuenche lands.

A:  Ah well, we clearly disagree with there.  I mean they are not well of today ..... I mean have you seen how they live today?  I mean they are not well off today.

08.20

River and fishing

The Bio Bio river is a place of enormous significance to all Mapuche.  The Southern invasion of the Spanish conquistadors ended here on it's banks.  In a victory rare in Southern America the Mapuche drove the Spanish North back towards Santiago.  And the Bio Bio has been Indian land ever since - a virtual border between European and Indigenous Chile.

Today the Pehuenche community here are deeply divided over whether to fight for the river once more.

08.58

Pehuenche market

100 families will be directly affected by the dam.

While eight families have signed agreements with Endesa even fewer have lodged native title claims.  A whole generation here have learnt it's dangerous to say no to the government or the companies the government supports and their is a fear that those seen to resist will not only lose their land but any chance for compensation as well.

09.35

"Pehuenche tierra" sign

Juan Pablo with bull

Juan:  "I have lost friends and relatives.  I have lost my nephews, I have lost my niece, my brother-in-law, my cousins.  I have lost all of them because I have been against Endesa.

Juan Pablo lives downstream from the sisters and he's one of the few Pehuenche who's prepared to openly join in their legal action.

Juan:  "All of a sudden they said you are moving  saying that if you don't go you'll be taken out by force."

"So people are afraid to speak now.  They're afraid of Endesa, they're afraid of the government in case the government  gets angry with them. Or sends the police the military to smash them.  So they do whatever the government wants and that is why people here are afraid to fight to argue with  Endesa because they are afraid of the government."

It's a fear created not just by along history of persecution but by the events of modern Chilean politics.

Presidents Palace. Dog lifts ears. Band plays

Democracy is returning to this country but the shadow of Pinochet still hangs over it.  It was here at the Presidential Palace that he launched one of the longest and bloodiest in South America.

11.31

Archive.  Palace bang bang

Pinochet began his reign of terror in 1973 when the Alende govt threatened the interests of landholders and miners.  His fascist alliance with big business lasted almost 20 years.  For each of those years to oppose the military or the large companies that supported it meant imprisonment, horrific torture or death.

Lily Marlene/ Pinochet

Today Pinochet's not in jail he's still having medals pinned on his chest.  He and the military have made it clear that the elections that returned liberal government occurred at his pleasure.  He still hand selects senators and his cronies still hold all their positions of power and privilege - no one has been punished for the atrocities that occurred.

Booming voice "Augusto Pinochet".

12.47

Pino Salutes.  Goose-step.  Kissy kissy people

These people have gathered to celebrate the 24th anniversary of Pinochet's ascension to power.  They didn't lose family and friends during the regime they made money and lots of it.

"The government of Pinochet ended but not the power of Pinochet...."

Roberto O/L

Look democracy the transition into democracy in Chile, has not meant the disappearance of the political, economical and military power of those who supported the dictatorship.  In fact, Pinochet continues to be the Commander in Chief of the Chilean army.  The economic power is still in the hands of those who obtained it  during the military regime.

Back to rally

These are the powers that the Pehuenche are confronting.  Their land claim doesn't just threaten Endesa's hydro scheme.  If the Pehuenche succeed the legal precedent of land rights would apply across the country threatening the elite's copper mines, their water rights, their power companies.

And no one in this country can forget what happened the last time the assets of the Chilean elite were threatened.

Jackboots.

Hang over audio into following

14.30

Court

It's more than just the symbols of the recent past that echo through Chile today - all decisions are made in it's shadow.

Door ext. Int audio

Everyone in the justice system knows that yesterdays criminals still hold power - in politics, in business, in the law itself...

Court int

The regime forged the view of each person involved in this trial.

The judges just survived the regime or thrived under it according to their personal choices..... in a system where independence was dangerous and justice belittled.

Roberto Celedon was imprisoned by it - thrown in jail for two years by a kangaroo court and then exiled for 8 years - he survived but many of his friends weren't so lucky.

His opponent Pablo Rodriguez bloomed under Pinochet.  He was the leader of Fatherland and Freedom, a fascist group that unleashed a wave of terror and was a recruiting ground for the states murderous secret police.  That his views on legal procedure are listened to at all says as much about the company that employs him - clearly his connections are still impeccable.

15.45

Rodriguez

My client has the right to carry out any economic activity.  There's no discrimination as set out in the law against indig people.  If there is discrimination.  It is against Endesa.

Endesa Interview.  Gaston Algneren          Endesa manager

We are very confident in the Chilean courts.... because we think that if the situation goes to the Chilean courts they decide in the right course.

Q:  Why do you think that?  Why do you think they'll decide for you?

A:  For me it is not possible to refer to this today, because I think that for me it is the Future.

Q:  You are spending a lot of money, you are proceeding as if the dam has approval... You're building roads, you're building work camps... how can you make those sorts of decisions without knowing what the end result will be?

A:  We are very optimistic.

Wet road                      Roberto drives

17.01

Drive to woodchipper.  Take photos

While the Pehuenche legal actions are still being heard work has already begun on the Bio Bio - forests are being cleared, roads built, power lines installed.

The message to the Pehuenche is clear - the project has begun and nothing can stop it - it's a message they've heard all their lives.

To Roberto the Pehuenche are no longer powerless.  The coming months will see if his belief that a new era may be dawning in Chile is anything more than a leap of faith...

Roberto:  "Don't sign anything, anything at all.  Because the law protects you, the Indigenous Law protects you.  And the law has to be respected...."

18.09

Berta by new house

Berta an Nicolasa are making their own statement about the future - they're building a new house - their first in 70 years.

The sisters are determined that they'll still be here next year....  Whether  Chile rises above or succomb to it's past.

There's not much of me, only this high, but I'm worth a lot.  I am quite brave, I am a match for any man.  In this sense - with 1 or 2 bullets I'm not going to die.  Rather than die by the bullets the person who is shooting at me is the on that will die, you see I am not on my own.  Well I am alone now but later on I will not be.  This is the bravery of a Penanche woman.

19.15

Ends