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Com/interview

Beautiful Patagonia

00 09

Patagonia, a vast wilderness of lakes, forests and mountains that straddles the Andes across the southernmost part of South America.

It’s the ancestral home of the indigenous Mapuche people, who were here when Spanish conquistadors first arrived on the continent over four hundred years ago.

Since the 19^th century it’s been divided by the border between Chile and Argentina – but for the Mapuche that’s always been an arbitrary boundary.

For generations, they’ve fought – and mostly failed - to get their rights to these lands recognized by both nations.

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00 58

Ramon Llanquileo

If we don´t fight for these lands, these area, we´re condemned to disappear.

01 06

Now those ancient, simmering resentments are once again bursting into flame.

The Mapuche say they’ve been pushed to the brink by a surge of environmentally destructive industries, such as logging.

Violence is spiraling and the region has been seen a spate of arson attacks against timber companies and landholders.

Burning trucks

01 38

Jorge Lanata, Journalist & TV host

In Chile the violent fraction is called CAM, There, not long ago, they burned some 50 trucks… complete madness.

01 48

Hector Llaitul, leader CAM

There is a military occupation of the conflict zone. We´re find ourselves obliged to respond to this violence against our people,

Big fire

02 01

In both Chile and Argentina it’s brought the Mapuche once more into conflict with the forces of the state. 

Fade to black

02 14

La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina’s most prestigious museum of natural history it attracts millions of tourists every year. But the museum’s basement hides a dark secret. Unbeknown to the visitors scurrying above, there’s a room strictly off limits, which says much about the state’s erstwhile attitudes to its indigenous people. Here are the skulls of 1000s of Mapuche captured and killed in the late 19th century as European settlers pushed south into Patagonia in what is euphemistically called the ‘Conquest of the Desert’. Their remains were on display until the 1960s

Interviewee

03 02

Marcelo Valko, author

The museum was one of horror, of fright, that exhibited complete skeletons belonging to chiefs or leaders, all the skulls have just an identification number, because they were common Indians.

03 24

Well into the 1880’s, children were being sold off as slaves – even through advertisements in the national press.  

Interview

03 33

Marcelo Valko, author

The ladies of beneficence will deliver upon request boys and girls as house boys or maids?" Concur to the port of La Boca where they will be delivered".

03 54

Marcelo Valko has spent many years studying crimes committed against the Mapuche during the desert campaign. And on the face of it, prejudice against the country’s indigenous people is still common, particularly in the media.

04 11

Jorge Lanata, Journalist & TV host

You don´t have to think of them as if they were Aztecs or Mayas, they´re not like that, they´re very basic Indians. They´re not sophisticated regarding ideology, they don´t have any...

Lanata’s TV show intro

04 26

Jorge Lanata, is one of Argentina’s most controversial TV hosts. His news show is watched by millions.

04 36

Jorge Lanata, Journalist & TV host

They are very primitive. I´ve interviewed a person in detention, wanted by Chilean authorities, named Jones Huala, have you seen that?

04 49

Clip from Latana’s show in which he interviews a Mapuche in prison

Latata: Someone bought the land. Land is private. you can buy and sell land.

Huela: Since when is it private? Since there was a genocide.

Lanata: Since always...

Huela : No, there was a genocide here, 1879/1885.

Lanata: Would you say that there was a genocide that ended with the Roman Empire?

Huela: What empire? My people were in concentration camps.

Lanata: Do you think we can go to Rome now and ask for a part of the Vatican?

05 10

Jorge Lanata, Journalist & TV host

What do they want? They want those lands they supposedly occupied to be given back to them.

05 21

Much of the Mapuche’s ancestral land in now in the hands of foreign billionaires

Like Italian clothing magnate, Luciano Benetton, whose estate covers 900,000 hectares, an area about half the size of Wales, and 9 percent of the region’s most cultivatable land.

interviewee

05 46

Silvio Huilinao, Cushamon community

From this fence onwards it belongs to Benetton, from here to the foothills of the range, and then another 15 km more on a straight line. it´s an immense territory.

06 00

2 years ago a group of Mapuche reclaimed a tiny fraction of the Benneton estate and began to farm it. Many violent raids by special police units followed.

interviewee

04 14

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace prize laureate

the government privileges the big foreign companies over the indigenous people and is irritated by them

Macri winning the election/ demonstration/ Macri on TV

06 23

Critics say that since the election victory of President Mauricia Macri 2 years ago, the state’s attitude to the Mapuche has become noticeably worse.

last August the issue a PR nightmare for the government when Santiago Maldonado, a white Mapuche supporter disappeared, while fleeing from police when the Mapuche camp on the Benetton estate was raided

It traumatized Argentina, awakening painful memories of the country’s 30,000 disappeared who vanished during the dictatorship in the 1970s.

The president appeared on TV to deny involvement.

07 09

Macri says:

We will not accept being told that this was a forced disappearance because it is impossible for this democratic government to participate in making anyone disappear.

07 21

For 3 months the country was gripped by the fate of Maldonado and then his body was found floating in this river, cause of death drowning according to the autopsy. However the body appeared inexplicably in almost exactly the same place as he had last been seen fleeing the police, and there had been numerous searches of the area leading many like Nobel peace prize laureate, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, to doubt the official version.

07 53

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Nobel Peace prize laureate

Now, after three months a corpse appears in the river. According to the experts, the anthropologists say that there were no physical injuries, but we don´t know yet how Maldonado drowned. There´s still things that remain unclear in the investigation.

Candles

Fade –

08 30

Policeman sings: your love is falling like water between your fingers

08 40

Over the border in Chilean Patagonia, the police are on a charm offensive. But the Province of Araucania is designated a conflict zone, the regional capital, Tumuco is full to bursting with paramilitary police.

interviewee

09 04

Int. Ana Piquer, national director, Amnesty International

In Araucania region there is the sense that there is the violence that is out of control and that should be somehow addressed by the authorities. Of course, it’s not that we validate the violence of the acts that were being committed in the region, but you cannot use that as an excuse to go over human rights

09 25

A group of militant Mapuche calling itself Coordinadora Arauco Malleco or CAM is engaged in a campaign of sabotage against the logging industry which it says is destroying the environment. So far no one has been injured but the group has caused millions of dollars in damage.

The government has responded by invoking an anti-terror law drafted during the time of former dictator General Pinochet

Interviewee

10 05

Ana Piquer, national director, Amnesty International

it affects the whole community. They arrive violently, they raid every house, they throw tear gas and not clear why in one of very recent cases. This year was affected a pre-school, that was in class with little children inside, that were all affected by the tear gas. And some cases with… had to be taken to hospitals

celebrations Collipuli

10 29

In the heart of the conflict zone, the small town of Collipulli is celebrating its centenary. The festivities have a distinctly marshal air. Not far away at the regional courthouse, Ada Huentecol is waiting outside.

10 52

Ada Huentecol Luviluan talking ton press says:

With pressure, we managed to get the Temuco prosecutor to call a formalization hearing

At the court

11 03

She tells us that a year ago her son was shot in the back by a police sergeant, while trying to defend his 12 year old brother.

It’s the first court case of its kind and for the Mapuche hopes are high that the perpetrator won’t get away with it this time. As it turns out the sergeant doesn’t even attend the hearing.

Hardly surprising, say activists, no policeman has ever been convicted for shooting a Mapuche

But Ada is in no doubt who she holds responsible

Ada with phone

11 38

Ada Huentecol Luviluan

Its him sergeant Christian Rivera Silva

interviewee

Ada Huentecol Luviluan

he shot him point blank range, for no reason. My other son Isaias, 13, was being kept by his side, on his knees, pointing their guns at him, threatening him "I´ll kill you". It was terrible -

Ada Showing xray

Ada Huentecol Luviluan

This is an x-ray of some pellets that still remain in my son, Brando... there´re 30 pellets still in his body... a rod that´s embedded in his pelvis, so he could walk...

Brandon walking with Ada

12 39

Activists say Brandon is one of hundreds of innocent Mapuche shot in some cases fatally by the police since the reintroduction of the anti-terror law

Interviewee

Slowmo of the general

12 51

Ada Huentecol Luviluan

General "Fransani, commander of all the special forces in the Araucania area, he spoke to the press, saying, it was an accident.

The general

13 04

We asked general Fransani who is in charge of the conflict zone to comment

interviewee

13 12

General Christian Fransani Cifuentes

The whole issue of the Mapuche conflict and rural violence belongs to Eric Gajardo, the General of Public Order. I oversee Public Safety

The general

13 22

Like every political or law enforcement official we approached in Chile and neighboring Argentina, the General refused to give us an interview.

Temuco gvs

In contrast to the apparent immunity enjoyed by the police it’s almost impossible to find a Mapuche leader who hasn’t spent time in prison.

Hugo set up

Hugo Lican, a renowned environmentalist has been a community leader for 10 years.

Interviewee

13 52

Hugo Lican community leader

In 2010, it was my first imprisonment for defending mother earth, I´ve spent three years in Temuco´s jail.

Hugo

14 02

Hugo was wrongly accused of terrorism, held for 3 years and then released

Interviewee

14 10

Hugo Lican community leader

For me that´s not a proper life, I´d like to live free, but as I´m a leader they got me permanently under police control

interviewee

14 25

Ana Piquer, national director, Amnesty International

There have been cases Mapuche people were accused more than once for terrorist crimes and acquitted in all of those cases. So, these people may have spent years of their life spent in prison for absolutely no reason.

protest

14 40

It’s an issue this protest is hopes to highlight

Interviewee

14 43

Ana Llao, protester

the mapuche people are under repressive actions by the state of Chile, not only imprisoning and murdering, but also killing our kids and young people,

Protest in Santiago, broken up by police

14 59

The Mapuche say they have a lot to protest about and demonstrations like this one in the capital, Santiagto, are common, but they are often brought to an abrupt end by the police.

Fabiola Antiqueo Toro on university roof

15 20

Last may Fabiola was watching a peaceful protest from the relative safety of the roof of the Mapuche university in Temuco when the police suddenly attacked

interviewee

15 34

Fabiola Antiqueo Toro, student

They attacked more violently. Among the many bombs they dropped, there´s one I couldn´t dodge, the one that hit my eye.

Interviewee

Fabiola Antiqueo Toro, student

... Pain... much pain... fear of losing my eye,... that´s the only thing I didn´t want... I can´t find any sense in all this repression we´re suffering, and not only in Chile but in Argentina...

logging

16 10

At the heart of the conflict is land. The Mapuche say that for decades they’ve been pushed to the margins of their ancestral homeland, often to make way for forestry plantations where fast growing trees unsuited to Patagonia have wrought havoc with the environment.

Interviewee

16 33

Jose Marileo

This lands were filled with forestry companies. Looking around you don´t see natural reserves, it´s all pine and eucalyptus... we had to see them taking away those resources right in front of our faces. The few lands left for us were covered in dust, the animals couldn´t find anything to eat.

Widow looking at phone

17 04

The threat of violence is never far off. Jose tells us that when his brother complained about a stolen horse to a policeman 2 months ago he was shot dead by the officer leaving a widow and child

interviewee

17 18

Teresa Millacheo Marin, Widow

Its my son

Mapuche occupying land and being attacked by police

17 23

For the last 20 years the Mapuche have been trying to taking back their land, occupying and protecting the environment. The authorities’ response is all too often deadly.

The lake

This is lake Pui Pui which is surrounded by logging concessions, its a primary centre of Mapuche resistance.

interviewee

17 54

Ramon Llanquileo

Today we´re here aiming to break this border imposed by the company, precisely this river, and advance further more towards the cordillera "Nahuel ¿Huta?". if we let all this companies, mining, forestry, extractive industries, take these resources and destroy the ecosystem, we´re condemned to disappear. That´s how tragic our situation is.

burning trucks etc

18 31

Although many prefer peaceful protests, some within the Mapuche community feel that direct action is now their only option.

Night shots from car

We’ve been invited to meet Hector Llaitul the leader of CAM, the group responsible for the acts of sabotage. We are picked up at a rendezvous in a remote village and then taken to a hide out in the mountains.

interviewee

19 00

Hector Llaitul, leader CAM

The mapuche struggle is being internationalized, and that´s why we´ve agreed to give you our vision of the mapuche conflict

Hector being dragged by police

19 11

Hector tells us he’s survived 3 assassination attempts and has spent 10 years behind bars during his campaign.

interviewee

19 23

Hector Llaitul, leader CAM

We´re talking about the death of Mapuche militants, death of young mapuches participating in territorial recovery processes, disappearances, political imprisonments. We´re find ourselves obliged to respond to this violence against our people, and to take some kind of direct action to oppose it. We see that the conflict has no solution in the short term.

Election victory of Pinera

20 00

With the victory of conservative Sebastian Pinera in last year’s Chilean presidential election, some feel that the conflict is likely to intensify,

20 12

Pinera says: Today the voice of the candidates stopped and the voice of Chileans were heard loud and clear."

20 23

During the campaign, Pinera received this glowing endorsement from Argentina’s autocratic president

20 32

Macri says: I want your election to go well. And in that I'm not objective, because I've been friends with Sebastian for many years, I admire him and I think he's a great leader.

20 43

A joint approach with neighboring Argentina to the mapuche question is now being formulated and Pinera has vowed to broaden the scope of country’s already fierce anti-terror laws

interviewee

20 56

Ana Piquer, national director, Amnesty International

We are worried about what might happen. We have always said that the antiterrorist law needs to be reformed. But that reform has to be done in terms of insuring due process standards. And going in that direction will likely do the opposite.

Bariloche

21 14

Back over the border in Argentina the situation is also deteriorating. This is Bariloche on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi, notable for its Alpine style, architecture. It is one of Argentina’s chicest resorts, deep within Patagonia. But there is tension in the air.

 Manhunt

While we were there a manhunt was in progress and there had been another shooting at a Mapuche community.

interviewee

21 52

Maria Nahuel

We thought it was all over, when on Saturday they killed my nephew "Rafa Nahuel". They kept shooting, looking for more people, even though we told them that there was only ourselves there, and that the rest of the people were up(hill) working...   

Mapuche occupying a site outside Bariloche

22 07

Rafa was part of a group of some 50 landless Mapuche which has occupied a small area outside Bariloche in order to farm.  

22 17

Masked man

The reason why we cover our faces is that if we go on the streets and they recognize us they would shoot us.

22 27

The authorities say they are terrorists and raided the community.

Interviewee

22 32

Masked man

Not a word was said and they started shooting into the air, and aiming at us. We´re fighting for a little piece of land while on this side there´s a rich man with 2000 hectares, on that other side, another rich man with 2000 hectares, And we´re claiming for a just cause, our dignified ancestral rights, and a piece of land that we´re working as a community.

Protest at Bariloche

22 58

Its 4 months to the day since the disappearance of Santiago Maldonado.

The rally organized in the resort town to mark the date is also now remembering Rafa Nahuel who has also become a martyr to the cause. 

There is an odd mood as protesters mix with holidaymakers.

Effigies of President Macri, the police chief and Luciano Benetton are carried to a statue celebrating General Roca, the man who led the desert campaign to pacify the Mapuche in the 19^th century.

130 years on and the Mapuche are still suffering the consequences.