Secwepemc land defender Kanahus Manuel expresses solidarity with Mapuche traditional leader Alberto Curamil

On January 11, Kanahus Manuel tweeted: “This Mapuche freedom fighter Alberto Curamil spent time in my home and Secwepemc Territory with me and my family. This is major Indigenous Human Rights violation how he is being treated.”

Manuel’s tweet included this short video of Curamil being arrested on April 7, 2020.

Curamil is an indigenous Mapuche lonko (traditional leader) and a member of the Alianza Territorial Mapuche (Mapuche Territorial Alliance) that works for the right to water and food, land and environmental rights in southern Chile.

In this series of tweets, journalist Marianela González explains the context of his arrest last year. It appears that Curamil was supporting a protest to contain the spread of COVID-19 on an international route that joins Chile and Argentina.

González notes: “Curamil was going to the Las Raíces d Lonquimay Tunnel where Mapuche and non-Mapuche neighbors met (from Lonquimay to Curacautín) to close the passage and call the authorities to be present in the area [and] apply sanitary barriers.”

Curamil stated: “The communities decided to close the tunnel, in order to control the free access that tourists and international transport trucks have.”

He added: “[The police] distort the action of the Pewenche [Indigenous peoples in south central Chile and adjacent Argentina] who protect themselves against this pandemic and that is why they did not let me pass.”

Indigenous rights and the pandemic

In May 2020, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, José Francisco Cali Tzay, stated: “Governments worldwide should support indigenous peoples to implement their own plans to protect their communities and participate in the elaboration of nationwide initiatives to ensure these do not discriminate against them.”

The Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Anne Nuorgam, has also noted that Indigenous peoples are “at disproportionate risk in public health emergencies” and that in response some are “sealing off their territories”.

Historical context, the struggle to defend Mapuche territory

Toward Freedom has noted: “In 1883, after defeat at the hands of the Chilean state during the ‘Pacification of the Araucanía’, Mapuche communities were forced onto reservations that made up only six percent of their original territory.”

The Mapuche people had about 10 million hectares of land before they were invaded, now they have as little as 400,000 hectares of land.

Front Line Defenders has noted: “Lonko Alberto Curamil has worked tirelessly to defend and protect the environment in Curacautin, in the Mapuche region of Araucanía, particularly from destructive logging activities.”

“Alberto’s leadership has led to the cancellation in 2016 of two hydroelectric projects that would have negatively impacted the sacred Cautín River.”

Their post also notes: “He is the winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize for South and Central America 2019.”

Front Line Defenders has also noted that Curamil was arrested in 2014 in reprisal to his opposition to the two hydroelectric dams.

He was arrested again in August 2018 possibly to remove him from the popular mobilizations against the second hydroelectric dam. He was held in pre-trial detention for more than a year and finally acquitted in a court ruling in December 2019.

Curamil and many other Indigenous peoples around the world face criminalization and repression for their defence of territory and Indigenous rights.

Photo: Kanahus Manuel, Miguel, Wolverine, Beverly Manuel, Alberto Curamil; Neskonlith Unceded Secwepemc Territory, 2015.