In the closing session of the European Humanist Forum 2018, the plenary session approved by acclamation a Declaration of Support to the Mapuche People which we reproduce below.

Chilean deputy, Tomás Hirsch, speaker in the Forum, publicly promised to deliver the Declaration to the Mapuche prisoners.

Reading and approval of the Declaration in the closing session of EHF2018

The declaration was unanimously approved by acclamation, a proposal from the working areas of “Social and Political Convergence”, “Interculturality, encounter and dialogue between human beings”, and “Human Rights”.

The text of the Declaration of Support by the EHF2018 to the Mapuche People.

The European Humanist Forum, meeting on 11, 12 and 13 May 2018 in the city of Madrid, Spain, agrees on the following resolution:

  1. We support and express our solidarity with the legitimate struggle of the Mapuche Nation for justice in the recovery of their ancestral territories and their recognition as an indigenous culture that existed before the foundation of the Republic of Chile.
  2. We demand that the State of Chile, and in particular, its current president, Sebastián Piñera, desists from any repressive action against Mapuche communities. Progress must be made on political solutions that are far removed from the militarized responses that have been attempted so far, and for which we condemn the criminalization of the legitimate Mapuche cause.
  3. In particular, we support and demand the release of José Tralcal, Luis Tralcal and José Peralino, who – in a recent ruling under Pinochet’s spurious Anti-Terrorist Law – were convicted after an absolutely irregular trial and in the absence of even the most minimal guarantees of due process. We consider it unacceptable that the Chilean State should apply the Anti-Terrorist Law to the Mapuche and that, on that basis, it should seek to punish strictly political conduct that must be dealt with as part of a conflict that the Chilean State itself unleashed at the end of the 19th century.
  4. Likewise, we request that the Chilean government respects human rights and the basic principles of international law and heeds the demand of machi Celestino Córdova, a Mapuche spiritual authority who is imprisoned in Temuco prison, serving an 18-year sentence for alleged participation in a criminal attack, and that he be released for 48 hours to attend his ceremonial centre (rewe) to renew his spiritual commitment. We ask President Piñera’s government to immediately reconsider its attitude, authorize the permission requested, and guarantee machi Córdova and his people the effective exercise of their rights and the practice of their spirituality.
  5. All of the above is part of an escalation of repressive measures against Mapuche communities, an escalation that coincides with the arrival of Sebastián Piñera as president. These include the constant police siege of mobilized communities, the permanent breaking in to Mapuche homes, roadblocks on their movements, harassment of Mapuche political prisoners in prisons and the silence imposed on the conflict by the media.
  6. Our invitation goes to social and political organizations to be alert and mobilized, to redouble their solidarity with the Mapuche Nation and with the historical struggles led by its people, since the planet is witnessing a resurgence of neo-fascism and, consequently, an increase in repression and criminalization of just causes throughout the planet. Solidarity with the Mapuche cause is solidarity with all the struggles of those unjustly persecuted around the world.

European Humanist Forum

Madrid, 13th May, 2018