Santiago, Chile, July 28 — Representatives of the Mapuche people maintained for the third consecutive day on Sunday their indefinite peaceful occupation of the UN Children Fund (UNICEF) office here, demanding the pullout of special Carabineros (police) from La Araucania.
They are members of the Mapuche Territorial Alliance (ATM) demanding UNICEF to intercede with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to ask the Chilean government for the pullout of police troops from Arauco.
According to the werken (spokesperson) for ATM, Mewlen Wenchu, UNICEF has had a passive, contradictory attitude towards the outrages, gunshot wounds and aggressions suffered by the Mapuche children.
Wenchu described as serious that local authorities said that the Mapuche families use their children as human shields against military police.
Regarding the protest, Francisca Palma, who is in charge of the UNICEF office here, said they will not request the Mapuche eviction.
Meanwile, there is widespread rejection of the decision to tighten security in La Araucania, an outcome of the "security summit" held by the Executive last week.
According to indigenous leaders, that meeting was held in the wake of strong pressure by businesspeople and big landowners who demanded crackdown on the Mapuches, demanding the recovery of lands in their ancestral territory.
Source: Prensa Latina