Sara Huncatripay lives in the Juana Millahual community at Lake Lleu Lleu. In Chile’s militarized zone, Lake Lleu Lleu is known as a center of Mapuche resistance. We asked Sara about the new Usurpation law which criminalizes Mapuche efforts to reclaim land. Sara explained, “On this land we have been trying to plant. We borrowed a tractor, but the police came and arrested me and the man who owned the tractor under the Usurpation Law. We were the first ones arrested under this new law. They can arrest me now just for being here. So how can we get tractors to plant? I go out and there is a drone watching me. On the road, police are looking for me. But this land is important. There are more women than men active in reclaiming the land – growing food, working the land. We are doing this for our children because tomorrow we may not be here, but they will. We drink clean water, we eat healthy food, we practice our culture. We do this autonomously which frees us from the companies and the state. People are imprisoned, people have lost their lives–but the important thing is that we are resisting.”

Juan Carolos Millanao (standing) is the Lonko (spiritual leader) of the Juana Millahual community at Lake Lleu Lleu. He spoke to us about the military presence and the importance of the women leaders. “We’ve had some conflicts and visits by the police, and the military comes around every day. But with the strength of our sister [Sara], we keep going. We need to keep up our fight so we can feel free. Not just here, but in all the countries where this is happening – in all the places where the people are fighting the large companies.”

Flora Collonao (right) is the mother of Mapuche political prisoner Rafael Pichún. We met Rafael Pichún's family members in the Temu Lemu community where he is from. They recounted a recent police action where special forces came in an armored car with heavy weapons and raided the community’s school. Rafael’s Mother, Flora told us, “This is the third time one of my children has been imprisoned. He is a spokesperson for the movement and is now imprisoned with no proof – for six months already. He has four children, two of them small children. Now I take care of them. Why don’t they go after murderers or violent criminals? No. They take our Mapuche youth. Rafael asked to be transferred to a prison close by here so we could see him, but he was sent here for one day and then sent back to Temuco and tortured. Mapuche people who demand their rights get 70, 80, 100 years in prison. No one has water so we complain. We can’t grow food. The lack of water is because of the deforestation. There have also been big fires caused by the dried up forestry plantations. Not here, we were lucky.”

Victoria Borquez is the wife and attorney of Mapuche political prisoner Héctor Llaitul Carrillanca. Hector is a prominent spokesperson and longtime leader of the CAM movement (Coordinadora Arauco Malleco). Victoria joined us when we met with Hector in prison. Hector’s son Ernesto Llaitul was not allowed to join us to see his father. For three months in 2024, Hector staged a hunger strike. His demands included transfer to a prison with a separate section for Mapuche people, as per international regulations for indigenous peoples. Despite this, he remains held as a common prisoner in the Bíobio prison in Concepción. Victoria spoke about the conditions there, “We, as relatives of the Mapuche political prisoners have denounced the systematic violation of the rights of the Mapuche political prisoners, as well as our own, as relatives of the Mapuche political prisoners. In this jail, we have experienced a constant struggle against the Gendarmerie personnel who take it upon themselves to harass and repress visitors to the Mapuche prisoners. They punish inside the prison, both them and their family members, creating indecent prison conditions, with no respect at all for their Mapuche identity, as members of the Mapuche people.”

Political prisoner Hector Llaitul’s son Ernesto with Ernesto’s son outside of the Concepcion prison. We met with Hector inside the prison to learn about the struggle. He stated, “I am authorized to speak about Mapuche struggle for autonomy, for territory – that is the turning point, the milestone of this struggle – the struggle for land. I represent the CAM organization which has been around for about 30 years, founded because the Neoliberal model has been very bad for the Mapuche. We now have to struggle for a land that was usurped by companies. Our link to the land is what makes us Mapuche. It is what we are known for. We could not speak about land and autonomy if we have no land. And now the land is being destroyed and this means the destruction of our people. The land is our reason for being. Weichafes [warriors] cannot be weichafes if we do not struggle for the land. We are revolutionaries fighting against injustice. And with people in the claws of the system we are fighting for cultural rights. Even if I have no freedom, I am still a Mapuche warrior. And the Mapuche warriors have a mandate to struggle.”

Victor Llanquileo Pilquiman is a political prisoner who lives in an “agro-prison.” He goes out to work during the day then returns to the prison after his shift. “Since the [Pinochet] dictatorship not much has changed. Some things are even worse. There are around 100 Mapuche prisoners today, which is worse than during the dictatorship. It is hard to enforce our rights in Chile. Our territory is very militarized. It looks like Vietnam with war machines on the highways and attacks on the communities against people who express their discontent. The forestry companies continue to occupy our lands, but we have never given up our territories. Treaties were signed with the Mapuches, but they are not respected. Taking Mapuches off of the land means suppressing the culture. The expulsion of communities, control by the companies of the water resources–all of this mean the disappearance of our people. So yes, there is resistance by people that want to continue their culture and existence. Our people need land. Our struggle is for life. Not just for us, but for all living beings on the Earth.”

Pilar Curillán speaks at a press conference following our delegation’s meeting with Mapuche political prisoners inside the prison in Temuco. Pilar is a spokesperson for the Temuco political prisoners belonging to CAM. CAM is a movement focused on the autonomist and revolutionary struggle for the liberation of the Mapuche Nation. During our meeting inside the prison, Mapuche prisoner Luis Menares Chanilao, of the Lof Rancahue commune explained, “Our area no longer has any native forest or water due to the plantations. We have to depend on government water trucks once per week. Many of our people live in poverty because of this. So we began a peoples struggle and joined CAM. We are the original people. This is our land. The forestry companies now are persecuting us on a national scale. They call us terrorists, that we kill people, that we do have the right to defend ourselves. But we have killed no one. We have committed no blood crimes. The prosecutors know this because our organization is committed to self-defense. We are not criminals. We are political prisoners.”

Juan Ramón López is the Lonko (spiritual leader) of the Kilape Lopez community. We first met Juan in 2019 during the national Peoples’ Uprising in Chile, when his community was actively reclaiming this territory. On our 2024 visit he told us, “Our land is bordered by three Volcanoes: Jaima, Lonquimay and Luaca. It is 1,000 hectares, though this community today is 230 hectares, but all this territory was ours. In 2019 we reclaimed 300 hectares of our land. The Carabineros came to repress us with commandos trained in Colombia. They established a military base nearby due to the fact that we are reclaiming our lands and removing hydroelectric dams on the Cautín river. The state will not buy the land back from the companies to give to us, but we are pushing them. Direct occupation is the way to reclaim our land. Many Mapuche youth are imprisoned, even from our land here – but the state keeps the prisoners far away from their communities. It is the young people that are paying for this struggle. In the past, the young people were simply killed, now they are imprisoned.”

Claudia Winkaxipay teaches at the Mapuche school on Lake Lleu Lleu. She has lived through the violent legacy of land grabs and deforestation. “There are more women than men here in the resistance. Women are taking charge – planting, running the schools, keeping the economics going.” My grandfather escaped from the 'Pacification of the Araucanía'. My father’s generation grew up without the culture and language. So we grew up without knowing anything. But in 1990 many young people had an ‘awakening’ and we understood we needed to reclaim our culture and land and began our struggle against the forestry companies. We built this school without money. We cut the wood ourselves from the pine plantations with a portable sawmill and transported the lumber across the lake. Then the police came and took our saw and never returned it. The Pocuno community helped us finish construction. There are twelve children who go to school here–more girls than boys. We have no dependence on the Chilean state. The children learn Chilean lessons to be able to pass the national exams, but the rest of the time they learn Mapuche culture – taught by the Mache, the spiritual leader.”

Lake Lleu Lleu is the largest lake in Chile under the territorial control of Mapuche communities, who took the land back from large wheat farms and pine plantations. On the opposite side of the lake is the location of one of the Pinochet dictatorship's infamous centers of detention and torture.

Members of the Chilean military guard the Temuco prison. Rafael Pichún is one of the most well-known Mapuche political prisoners. He was arrested when he took over as spokesperson for the CAM movement after Hector Llaitul, the previous spokesperson, was arrested for speaking out in defense of Mapuche direct actions. Pichún told us, “I am the son of a political prisoner. Our family has been systematically persecuted. I have been here in preventative prison for six months. I am accused of being the intellectual author of an arson attack, but I was actually arrested for being a traditional leader of the community. I became the spokesperson for CAM after the first spokesperson was arrested. This is more than political persecution. They want us in prison as long as possible – even with no proof of our crimes and no trial to convict us. The authorities even visited my children in school to intimidate them – they were armed with machine guns. This is colonialism – even against the children.”

Luis Astete (right) is the father of Mapuche political prisoner Claudia Nahelan. They live in the Pocuno community on Lake Lleu LLeu. “It has been very hard for Claudia, and now her children don’t have her. Her house is right behind us. She went missing overnight–imprisoned merely on hearsay. I was with my wife for more than 50 years. She used to travel to speak out about the repression of the state against the Mapuche people. [Dictator Augusto] Pinochet wanted to get all of the Mapuches together and remove them to the mountains where we would die. Our struggle is over 400 years old and continues to this day. Our children can never back down. The Mapuches should be one more state within the nation, but the government will not allow this.”

These three boys are the sons of Mapuche political prisoner Claudia Nahelan. Claudia has been in prison for nine months without a trial or conviction. The boys have not been allowed to see their mother since she was imprisoned. They live in the Mapuche community Pocuno on Lake Lleu Lleu. The community is well-known as the village where renowned Chilean folk singer Victor Jara used to go to do volunteer work. He wrote a song about Pocuno called Angelita Huenumán.

This elder lives in the Renaco Pastales Commune, where several Mapuche political prisoners are from. The Lonko (spiritual leader) Sigisfredo Millapan spoke to us about the community’s land reclamation efforts, “When I was a boy, we were very poor – since 1978 when the forestry companies came in. We had no land. My father migrated and worked picking fruit. Now with the [land] recovery, we have more land–animals and people are doing better. But wild animals come and eat our crops because there is nothing to eat in the forestry plantations that are all around us. This area was colonized 200 years ago. We as the descendants are still suffering the consequences. Chile asked the Mapuche to help evict the Spanish, but then they came to kill us. [In the 1860s] they undertook a huge massacre – burning the land to take it and give it to the colonizers. To them we are not human. They call us garbage. We cannot ignore it, it is on TV, all around. ‘We could just kill all the Mapuches’ to solve the problem, they say.”

Mapuche women weavers with the Relmu Witral Indigenous Association are part of the Mapuche cultural revitalization. They make and sell traditional Mapuche weavings and clothing with inks from native trees endangered by pine and eucalyptus monoculture plantations. This is an important source of income for the communities.

The Nahuelbuta National Park is the largest biodiversity hotspot in the highly militarized Province of Arauco. It contains some of the last remaining intact native forest in the region. The park, part of the Mapuche ancestral territory, is considered a sacred place for the Mapuche people and holds significant spiritual meaning for their culture. the name "Nahuelbuta" itself translates to "big tiger" in Mapundungun, the Mapuche language. The park is part of Chile’s coastal mountain system – a mountain range older than the Andes, dating back 570 million years. The park is filled with ancient araucaria trees that look as though dinosaurs might roam through them. Once at the very top of the park, it is possible on a clear day to see the entire width of the country, from the Andes to the east to the Pacific ocean to the west. The park is surrounded by pine and eucalyptus plantations which were developed during the Pinochet dictatorship. The state gave away land around Nahuelbuta to two rich families and subsidized the purchase of seedlings and the hiring of workers. These families are now two of the richest in Chile.

Exotic and fire-prone eucalyptus plantations line the road that leads to the Nahuelbuta National Park. Of the 620,000 hectares that make up the Nahuelbuta mountain range, only about 20% remains as native forest. Vast areas are covered in exotic tree plantations, which deplete water and biodiversity, and contribute to “mega” wildfires. The loss of native forest and the dominance of monoculture plantations have created severe hardships for Mapuche communities, whose culture, spirituality, food and medicine come from native forests. The road to the national park is a nightmare of giant potholes, boulders and mud pits, bordered on both sides by pine and eucalyptus plantations and clearcuts. One drives through this dystopian landscape for more than an hour before reaching the park entrance and the beginning of the native forest.

Emilio Montoya, a neighbor of this clearcut pine plantation gave our delegation a tour, showing us many legal violations. He pointed out how the clearcut went straight down the banks of the stream, which was now a muddy track, in violation of the law. He told us that the communities downstream from this pine plantation have been complaining to the authorities because they have no water. The fast growing plantations used up all of the ground water and dried up the streams. Plantations and clearcuts have replaced the native forest and depleted fresh water throughout Mapuche territory. Chile has recently announced that they want to expand eucalyptus and pine plantations in Chile by an additional one million hectares [2.5 million acres].