Chile's Mapuches Organize Against NAFTA
Millaman, Rosamel
Indigenous organizations in Chile, especially those representing the Mapuche nation, have been mobilizing against government plans to enter into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The...
...While its focus is economic issues, the Committee has become a social and political reference point for anti-NAFTA organizing in the region...
...The Frei government has begun to build a highway along the Pacific coast, destroying dozens of communities and Mapuche reservations in the provinces of Arauco, Cautin and Valdivia in the process...
...Last December, Chile's indige- nous organizations partici- pated in a national meeting organized by the Foundation of Indigenous Development, a Santiago-based non-gov- ernmental organization...
...At the regional level, they have demanded that indigenous organizations be included in local forums that are debating Chile's participation in NAFTA...
...2. Aukin, No...
...They are now preparing a national indigenous congress to strategize about how to organize protest against NAFTA and thwart Chile's participation in both NAFTA and Mercosur, a regional common market comprised of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay...
...The Mapuche Cultural Center was founded in 1979 to oppose Pinochet's plans to divide Mapuche reservations...
...Mapuche leaders have toured the United States to speak about the negative impact that NAFTA would have on their communities, and they plan to meet with Democratic Senators later this year in Washington to discuss their opposition to the treaty...
...The Council of All Lands, a Mapuche nationalist organization, has called the treaty "a new form of colonial and neocolonial expansionism" that fundamentally undermines Mapuche self-determination...
...Other ethnic groups, including the Aymaras, Quechuas, Kawashkar and Yamanas, represent less than 1% of the population...
...An estimated 400,000 Mapuches-almost half the Mapuche population-now live in the capital city of Santiago...
...They have also sought to mobilize support from international allies with whom they worked during the continent-wide Quincentenary campaigns...
...Mapuche opposition to NAFTA has its roots in the historic forms of resistance adopted by Chilean indigenous peoples...
...The Mapuche organizations have organized tra- ditional protest marches against NAFTA in the city of Temuco, the urban heart of Araucania...
...Mapuche anti-NAFTA organizing is not just a rejection of an economic system...
...Depressed living conditions have led to a diaspora, however...
...The Frei government's reforestation policy allows transnational corporations to fraudulently acquire Mapuche reservation land...
...For example, the six hydro- electric dams constructed on the Bio Bio River under the Aylwin administration (1990-94) flooded more than 1,250 acres of Mapuche land and forced more than 600 families to migrate.' Neoliberalism also threatens the integrity of Mapuche territories...
...Most importantly, NAFTA threatens the realization of a long-term Mapuche objectiveregional and economic autonomy...
...Even though the Mapuches are a minority within Chilean society, they are spearheading the opposition to NAFTA in Chile...
...Mapuche organizations fear that Chile's participation in NAFTA will further open the door for transnational companies to extract the country's natural resources, like timber and water, with no consideration of the social and environmental consequences...
...Mapuche organizations characterize NAFTA as the "third invasion of Mapuche territory"-after the Conquest in the late sixteenth century and the Chilean Army's incursions in the latter half of the nineteenth century, which effectively ended Mapuche autonomy...
...The Mapuches believe that NAFTA will strengthen the neoliberal model-imposed during the Pinochet dictatorship and continued under democra- tic rule-that has been so devastating for their peo- ple...
...They Rosamel Millaman is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York...
...About one million Mapuches live in Chile, comprising 10% of the population...
...He was a Mapuche leader from 1976 to 1986, and currently teaches at Lehman College...
...The center-south region of Chile, known as the "Frontier" or "Araucania," is the historic center of Mapuche culture...
...3. Diane Haughney and Pedro Mariman, "Acerca del desarrollo y la di-spora Mapuche," Documentos Krma-Liwen (Temuco), March, 1994...
...The Mapuches fear that under NAFTA, transnational corporations will set up new manufacturing industries in Araucania which will exploit the local labor force without bringing any real benefits to the area...
...National and transnational companies, for example, increasingly rely on Mapuche labor, which is grossly underpaid...
...At the national level, they have urged the current government of Eduardo Frei to initiate a nationwide debate about the treaty...
...The Mapuches are the largest indigenous group in Chile...
...It has also led them to seek out allies among other sectors of Chilean society that oppose NAFTA, including campesinos, agriculturalists, urban grassroots groups, students and artisans...
...Translated from the Spanish by NACLA...
...2 Other government plans to "modernize" Chile have seriously harmed the land-the foundation of Mapuche culture...
...Such was the case in Malleco, where the U.S.- based Simpson Papers Company has claimed ownership of over 500 acres of Mapuche land...
...These different sectors have come together in the Coordinating Committee for Fair Development and Commerce of Araucania...
...have also been developing more innovative strategies...
...The Mapuches may be a small minority of the Chilean population, but their voice on NAFTA-and other issues of national importance-is increasingly being heard, U 1. "Presas del Bio-Bio: la base para desaparici6n de los Mapuches y para la destruccion del ecosistema," Africa Amrrica Latina, Cuadernos, No...
...This would destroy seven indigenous reservations and affect thousands of Mapuche landowners...
...11, 1993...
...Political differences led to a splintering of the group in 1980, giving rise to a number of Mapuche organizations, including the Council of All Lands, Admapu, Nehuen Mapu and Choin Folil Che...
...The government's neoliberal policies have caused environmental damage with repercussions for Mapuche communities...
...25, Official newspaper of Aukin Walmapu Ngulam (Temuco), October, 1995...
...The government also plans to construct a road eraddresses a gathering in linking the Pan-American Highway, which runs north to south along the Chilean coast, to the eastern side of the city of Temuco...
...There is also growing concern that Mapuche labor will be exploited...
...Their common stance of opposition to NAFTA has helped unify the diverse Mapuche organizations...
...also calling for a broader dialogue over the meaning of NAFTA for Chile...
...A Mapuche community lea The Mapuche groups are Temuco...
...It is also a protest against the cultural and ecological implications of the treaty...
...Low levels of education and training among the Mapuches, coupled with ethnic discrimination, have made them highly vulnerable...
...The Chilean government's drive to impose mar- ket-oriented production has encouraged Mapuche assimilation and undermined traditional indigenous economies, based on reciprocity and subsistence agriculture...
Vol. 29 • March 1996 • No. 5
