Transcript:

I took this photo on 10 October, 2024 of Lonko Juan Pichún in Temulemu, Chile. The word “Lonko” is a Mapuche name given to the community and spiritual leader. In October of 2024, I was part of a three-week investigative and human rights delegation organized by Global Justice Ecology Project to look into and document the serious repression of the Mapuche Indigenous People by the Chilean government. We also wanted to see what impacts the pine and eucalyptus monoculture plantations have on the Mapuche.  

We traveled to many Mapuche communities to document the stories and experiences of the Mapuche who were involved in the recovery of their ancestral lands stolen by the timber company under the Pinochet dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s. In fact, Pinochet’s constitution is still in effect and now the timber company, Arauco, is a major corporation on stolen Mapuche territory. They also control the false narrative of the Mapuche as “terrorists” trying to squelch the legitimacy of the Mapuche’s attempt to recover their own lands.  

Arauco is Latin America’s largest timber plantation owner and Chile’s largest exporter of timber products. Our delegation heard over and over that Mapuche involved in this land recovery movement are being criminalized and subjected to tremendous repression. Our first encounter with this was at the prison in Temuco where we met eight Mapuche political prisoners jailed on charges without evidence where they may be held for almost two years without a trial in what the state calls “preventative prison.” Many of the Mapuche targeted for arrest were youth, but not all.  

Some families were also targeted for harassment and repression. We met with members of prisoner Rafael Pichún’s community in Temulemu including his brother Lonko Juan Pichún. 

Two weeks before we arrived in Temulemu, the Chilean National Police invaded it, storming the elementary school in full riot gear with automatic weapons, which the community told us was to create fear among the youth, including the young son of Rafael Pichún. On 26th June, 2025 Lonko Juan Pichún was arrested on charges of arson against the timber industry. He is now in prison with his brother Rafael in Temuco. 

The story of the Pichún family is an introduction of the state repression against the Mapuche people, with roots dating back to at least the 1990s. During those years with the resurgence of territorial claims and the reorganization of communities several members of the Pichún family began to face legal proceedings, accusations of terrorism, and raids. These events laid the groundwork for a systemic policy of criminalization that persists to this day. Pascal Pichún, Juan’s father and a renowned Lonko, was one of the first to feel the weight of this harassment within the family during the 1990s and early 2000s. He faced multiple legal proceedings and was imprisoned on several occasions, charged under the anti-terrorism law for his role in the recovery of ancestral lands. His case became a symbol of the repression of the Mapuche movement, attracting the attention of international organizations that denounced the irregularities in his arrest and trial. 

The pattern of persecution extended to the next generation, directly affecting Juan’s siblings, like Rafael Pichún. His case, like that of his father, demonstrated the recurrent use of highly dangerous offenses such as the anti-terrorism law to contain the Mapuche movement generating a profound impact on the life of his family and the community. 

And now the back story: the resistance of the Mapuche was definitely one of the many highlights of our trip. However, there is a bit of sadness in me. The Chilean government and Arauco Forestal’s ongoing war on the Mapuche and the unrelenting colonization of Indigenous Peoples are wrong, seriously wrong. And that fits into a world of wrongs. The videographer on this trip, Steve Taylor, has hours upon hours of important video. And I took around 1,000 photos. 

When we got back to the US and were beginning to get some of our work out publicly, we were hit with a message from Chile that some of the people arrested after our visit requested that we take down our documentation because it was going to be used against them in a Chilean court of law. We had no choice but to take down the heartfelt Mapuche people’s own words. But for now we have to be content in knowing that we have captured an important part of history and someday we will be able to show the strength and the resistance of the Mapuche people.