Background Economic and political initiatives beginning in the '90s had three objectives: the opening of Wallmapu to transnational corporations, looting and spoliation of natural resources, and the submission of the land protest. In sum: the real subjugation of nature, spiritual believes and political capabilities of the Mapuche resistance to capital. The process of indigenous reclaiming Mapuche lands, in Valle de Elikura for example, is the consequence of a whole Lavkenche generation seeking to self-determine its present and future. Legal Case In the early morning of January 29, 2020, over a hundred police officers violently searched five households in Valle de Elicura, Lavkenche land in Wallmapu (coastal Mapuche territory). Following the struggle, punches and attacks on their families, Matías Leviqueo, Eliseo Raiman, Guillermo Camus, Esteban Huichacura, Carlos Huichacura and Manuel Huichacura were arrested. Another Mapuche, Francisco Medina Huichacura, was detained almost a year later and linked to the same case. The men have been charged with a death at Playa Blanca, in the Mapuche territory of Lake Lanalhue, land usurped by the forestry businessman Hector Garcia. In the arraignment, it was determined that the only evidence against them were statements given by protected witnesses. Not only were those statements contradictory, but also the alleged witnesses failed to establish a connection between the accused and the crime. Ignoring these legal loopholes, the peñi from Valle de Elicura were taken to Lebu prison in the province of Arauco. On December 24, 2021 they were sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Cañete court.

The Mapuche political prisoners from Elicura are part of a larger Mapuche movement resisting forestry companies, hydroelectric projects, and large landholders in defense of their ancestral territories. Direct-action land recuperations and the reconstruction of Mapuche ways of living on their recuperated territories have been pivotal to this resistance.

Matías Felipe Leviqueo Concha was sentenced to another four years for illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Media

Communique after Trial - https://itsgoingdown.org/communique-from-mapuche-political-prisoners-of-elicura-imprisoned-in-lebu/