Sample Letter on Lonko Juana Calfunao detention

S.E Michelle Bachellet
President of the Republic
Palacio de la Moneda
Santiago, Chile.

..... January, 2007

Dear President,

My attention has recently been drawn to the 150 day prison sentence of the Mapuche leader Lonko Juana Calfunao Paillalef, her husband Antonio Cadin and their children Jorge and Waikilaf; as well as her sister Luisa Calfunao, mother of three young children, one of which is 3 years old. Lonko Calfunao's younger sister is only 7 and, faced with the arrest of practically her whole family, finds herself helpless. I am alarmed that the Chilean justice system is passing such severe sentences for minor offences such as “public disorder”.

I would like to express my concern about the health of the prisoners, both physical and psychological. In particular that of Luisa Calfunao who has suffered from hysteria after enduring persecution, detention, beatings and humiliation from the police, as well as attacks on her community, Juan Paillalef . As a result of this, she has had to be moved from prison to the psychiatric ward at the Temuco Regional Hospital.

I consider the struggle of Lonko Juana Calfunao and her family to be a just one, in respect of the rights of their community, and I deplore the denial of their right to peaceful protest. Since the start of the protests, against the seizure of land during the Chilean invasion of Mapuche territory, the charge of “public disorder” has been regularly used as a pretext to keep Lonko imprisoned.

I would like to state on record that the way in which Lonko and her sister have been, and are being, treated by state police officers representing their government is unacceptable in a democratic country governed by the rule of law.

I regard, without doubt, these events as clear evidence of the political persecution of Mapuche leaders who are fighting for freedom and justice for their people. Despite the political nature of the Mapuche leaders' struggle, Chilean justice imprisons them alongside common offenders.