Héctor Llaitul admitted that the Arauco Malleco Coordinator (CAM) is part of what he called “wood recovery”, with the aim of paying for “necessary implements to defend the Mapuche communities.” This, prior to the Government announcing the expansion of the State Security Law lawsuits against it and hardening the tone calling on the Prosecutor’s Office to act.
Llaitul clarified, yes, that “we are not part of the wood theft mafias” and that this is “another issue”, during the presentation of a book on the thought and action of the Mapuche organization entitled “Chem ka Rakiduam” and written by members of the CAM —an event that occurred on June 10 in Lo Hermida, Peñalolén—.
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“We recover that wood to have resources to generate the supplies to rebuild the Mapuche world, to have the irons (weapons) and to have the shots and to have the necessary implements to defend the communities and the processes that are carried out,” he said. Héctor Llaitul, generating the reaction of parliamentarians who requested his prompt arrest.
The deputy of the Christian Democracy (DC), Joanna Pérez, told Radio Biobio that “what Llaitul points out is extremely serious, because he points out that he is actually carrying out an illegal act, which is the theft of wood, to get hold of weapons.” And he added: “I believe that this cannot be tolerated in any part of the country or the world, and here the State Internal Security Law must be applied.”
From the same political tent, the president of the investigative commission for the theft of wood in the Chamber, deputy Eric Aedo (DC), added that “we have always said that, after the illegal business of theft of wood, which moves more than 100 million dollars and that means between five thousand and six thousand hectares of stolen wood a year, with that money, and with that illicit business, the violence in the South Macrozone is financed, the purchase of weapons”.
The senator for the Region of La Araucanía, Carmen Gloria Aravena (Independiente-former Evópoli), also addressed Llaitul’s statements, although she maintained that nothing she says at this point can be cause for surprise. “This video is one more element that confirms the terrorist character of the CAM and its members,” the legislator told Radio Agriculture, arguing that “the theft of wood was a known fact and this video is convincing proof that those of us who had been denouncing it were not wrong.”
For Senator Aravena, Llaitul “is a danger to society and cannot continue to travel freely and unpunished through the country,” therefore, “the State and the Government must seek his prompt arrest and submit him to the courts of justice.”
It is worth mentioning that on August 9, the deputies of the UDI, Juan Manuel Fuenzalida and Sergio Bobadilla, asked the Prosecutor’s Office to request -as soon as possible- an arrest warrant against Llaitul, after warning in a statement that They will continue to “confront” the “pseudo-left that is positioned today in the Government” by armed means, assuring that “there will be no truce for the foresters”, in response to the request made by the historian José Bengoa in the face of the constitutional plebiscite of the next September 4.
The government spokesperson, Camila Vallejo, indicated that the Arauco Malleco Coordinator (CAM) is not open to dialogue. And, regarding the expansion of the lawsuit filed by the Government against Llaitul, she urged the Public Ministry to act, pointing out that “the tools are on the table.”
In the same activity, Héctor Llaitul fired at the idea of plurinationality, pointing to the dissolved Constitutional Convention.
“I can say it with great morality, I never saw, in more than almost 3 decades of being in Walmapu fighting, I never saw a canvas, a sign, that said: we want a plurinational State, I never saw it. They always repeated the same canvases and the same slogans… Territory for the Mapuche nation people, autonomy,” he said.
Llaitul explained that his book explains that “the struggle” has nothing to do with multiculturalism, because that basically “dilutes the substratum and deep content of the Mapuche cause,” emphasizing that they have been made invisible.
“They have made us invisible with the speeches, all of them, even progressivism. Those young people who emerged in the social movements, tattooed in good vibes, have made us invisible, but we are a political act, I would not be showing our faces here if we did not have a social, political and military movement,” he concluded.
