Call for International Solidarity to Comrades in Chile

international | crime and justice | news report

Saturday September 18, 2010 13:27

by Assembly for Solidarity

Responding to the Call for International Solidarity by the persecuted and rebellious comrades in Chile, we call on people around the world to express their solidarity and in Athens we invite a

Gathering of Solidarity
on Friday, September 24th at 5pm,
outside of the Chilean Embassy (Bas. Sofias 25)

THE PASSION FOR FREEDOM HAS NO BORDERS
THE SAME FOR SOLIDARITY

On August 14th 2010 the Chilean State, under orders of special district attorney Alejandro Pena, began a campaign of oppression against Chilean agonists, code named "Salamander." With invasions into social spaces, occupations and dozens of homes throughout the country, 14 people were arrested and taken to the Nunoa police station. The next day they were led to the courts of Santiago and charged with over 100 bomb attacks made over the past years in all of Chile. The assembly which gathered outside of the courthouse in a display of solidarity was violently suppressed and 40 people were detained.

With the unanimous aid of the mass media in creating a negative climate against the arrestees and without real evidence against them, the court of Santiago ordered that 8 of the 14 be kept in custody until trial. The other 6 were released with restrictive measures, forbidden to leave the country, to communicate with each other, to visit the imprisoned or the social centers and occupations the police had invaded, and that they must present themselves to local authorities every week. The men were taken to C.A.S. maximum security prison and the women to Centro de Orientation Femenina, all in solitary confinement. On Monday September 6th another 2 people were arrested in the context of the “bomb case” spectacle.

Over the past years the democratic facade of the Chilean State, under the guise of financial development, has circumvented most social and union rights and sold off huge portions of land to multinational companies (Benetton) and the logging, livestock and tourism industries, primarily in the south, violently evicting the indigenous Mapuche peoples from their ancestral land. In the Mapuche territories right-wing paramilitary groups guided by rich landowners have become active and terrorize and murder people who choose to resist the plans of the dominant. Conflicts erupt and dozens of indigenous agonists and arrested and imprisoned. Over 400 people are awaiting trial, most of whom are farmers struggling to regain the land which in the past was stolen by the Chilean army and is now in the hands of multinational logging and energy companies.

Also, since 2009 a special “anti-terrorist” law from the days of the Pinochet dictatorship has been reactivated so as to crack down on the recent upsurge of attacks and unrest in the south of the country, for which the indigenous Mapuche are accused. The controversial law triples the penalties for arson and land occupations and has been used 16 times in the past 10 years. This past summer Mapuche political prisoners began a hunger strike (shortly after by means of court order they were forced into compulsory sustenance) and in September they were followed by imprisoned minors, struggling for the liberation of the political prisoners and the ending of their prosecution.

As social inequalities intensify, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, in all of Chile social resistance strengthens and every demonstration breaks out into conflict while in parallel there are bomb attacks against state and corporate targets. In the context of this social unrest, the pogrom against anarchist/ libertarian comrades is carried out, who by no evidence other than their activeness in social struggles are considered responsible for the conflicts and the bombings.

From the joint announcement of the Autonomous Social Space and Libertarian Library Jonny Cariqueo and the occupied Social Space and Library Vanzetti, La Crota bikepunk:

"We are the target chosen to cover up the tragedy of the 33 miners and their families, victims of the exploitation of the powerful, and the hunger strike of the Mapuche comrades who are struggling for their land." "The political and legal fabrication is obvious, the construction of an illegal 'terrorist' organization with leaders is schizophrenic. We, as anti authoritarians and anarchists do not believe in, nor do we obey hierarchies, much less orders. That which district attorney Pena calls funding terrorism is called international solidarity. That which the police call "centers of power" are houses in which libraries are built and the people are called upon to face the current reality of exploitation and nonsense, places were social relationships are built far from commercialization, based on values such as solidarity, horizontal relationships, mutual support and self-management."

Responding to the Call for International Solidarity by the persecuted and rebellious comrades in Chile, we call on people around the world to express their solidarity and in Athens we invite a
Gathering of Solidarity
on Friday, September 24th at 5pm,
outside of the Chilean Embassy (Bas. Sofias 25)

NOTHING IS FINISHED EVERYTHING CONTINUES
SOLIDARITY IS A POWERFUL WEAPON
FREEDOM TO THE CHILEAN AGONISTS
AND ALL THE PRISONERS
OF CLASS SOCIAL WAR

Assembly for Solidarity
Open Assembly of Anarchists for a United Polymorphic Movement
(Athens, Greece)

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Call for International Solidarity to Comrades in Chile