In Canada 215 Indigenous Children Found Buried.
SIMILAR FACT: CRIME OF GENOCIDE IN PUEL MAPU AND NAGMAPU
[Chile
and Argentina]
Aucán Huilcamán, Mapuche Nation
Expert in International Law
Canada is commonly presented in Chile by the political class as a political model of having achieved a certain level of understanding with Indigenous Peoples. However, very few expected that recently around 215 indigenous children would be found buried in an education center. This establishment was created for the training of indigenous children, via evangelization and to replace their collective indigenous identity with the Canadian version of the national identity of the colonizer. This fact, due to its characteristics, constitutes a crime against humanity typified in various norms of international law. But those who present Canada as an example to follow, omit the valuable political decision of having formed a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission”. This is a concept that could be considered in Araucanía to overcome the growing tensions and controversies and that have similar roots in the events that continue to be uncovered in Canada.
Mapuche Children
This information seems to come from a distant time and territory. However, if we examine the history of the relationship of the Chilean and Argentine State with the Mapuche, especially in the coercive military acts of the so-called "Pacification of Araucanía" and the "Conquest of the Desert in Neuquén, Río Negro and Chubut" very similar situations occurred of extreme gravity. These are acts that also constitute crimes against humanity and that remain today with the most complete impunity. Instead, these issues are simply dismissed as the so-called "Mapuche conflict" and for purposes of criminalization they are called the "indigenous conflict”.
In the extermination of the 215 children in Canada, the Canadian State itself and the Catholic Church, that is, the Vatican, are involved. Both institutions continue to have an institutional responsibility from the times of the original European colonial invasions until today. For this reason, with absolute legitimacy, it has been proposed internationally to review the consequences of the "Doctrine of Discovery" where the Vatican as a State has direct responsibility in the historical and current situation of Indigenous Peoples, included among them the Indigenous Peoples of Canada in the north and the Mapuche in the south.
On the occasion of the visit that Pope Francis made in January 2018
in the Mapuche territory, I wrote a book that I called “To My Neighbor, Pope
Francis”. There, I addressed various events that constitute crimes against
humanity, such as genocide, kidnapping and torture of Mapuche children from
Araucanía, Neuquén, Río Negro and Chubut. By way of example:
“After the campaign of General Villegas to Nahuelhuapi in 1881, some 300
Indians were taken to Patagones in the most pitiful state. They were placed
between the walls of the church, which reached a height of five feet. There
they spent more than a month under the lash of the winds and winter
temperatures, Father Fragano, who had accompanied them on their long journey,
spent with them all the moments that their occupations left them free: he
taught them Spanish, elementary rules of hygiene. and instructed them in
religion. After 1 month of indoctrination, he baptized 30, but that same
afternoon a tragic episode occurred, order was given to separate all the children to deliver them to families in the riverside
towns. It was a heartbreaking scene ... (...) there was a mother in despair of
her pain threw her child on the bricks, there the bricks of the temple were
left with innocent blood sprinkled with innocent blood as a sad image of the
desecration of human rights" (Curruhuinca-Roux, 1986, p.97)
In the context of the Pacification of Araucanía, General José Manuel Pinto, used the good faith of the Mapuche in his favor and entered into an apparent peace agreement, and in direct alliance with the Catholic Church in the person of Fray Estanislao María Leonetti celebrated an agreement with Faustino Quilahueque that was intended to commit Quilapan to the cessation of the Mapuche resistance. Instead, Mapuche children were abducted in an act of mass kidnappings. The supposed agreement had 2 points:
1.-Deliver all the Spanish captives that the Indians have in their power and all the bandits and thieves who have taken asylum in their territory,
2.-To deliver equally each Cacique, 2 male children, as a guarantee of fidelity. (Leandro Navarro, 2013, p.264)
The facts confirm the direct participation of the Vatican, in the
application of the Doctrine of Discovery, the participation in the massive
kidnappings of indigenous children of various nationalities, the torture and
genocide committed in the colonial era and in the formation and expansion of
the Nation States from Canada to Patagonia. In prominent example is the
kidnapping of Ceferino Namuncura.
In this context, the need to establish a Commission for Historical
Clarification at the continental level to address the issues of collusion and
complicity has been raised to determine the institutional responsibility of
the Vatican as a state ever since the illegitimate application of the "Doctrine
of Discovery" and till today.
The Indigenous Peoples have survived this genocide. Now, at this juncture, especially when the Vatican is led by Pope Francis, who has full knowledge of what has happened during the initial colonial period. As a "Neighbor of the Mapuche People", Pope Francis is also very aware and informed of the bloody history of the successor state of Chile, in terms of the Indigenous Peoples of the continent and with the neighboring Mapuche Nation specifically.
The example of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada
is a consideration for what should be a Commission for Historical Clarification
at the continental level. This proposal is completely and applicable in terms
of the geopolitical agenda of the Original Nations of the Indigenous Peoples of
the Continent Abya Yala. Especially among
the Mapuche People who have been the object of the crime of open genocide and
who today continue to endure the compounded violation of absolute impunity.
This situation constitutes to be one of the root causes that is manifested in
the conflict in the regions of the south, which is more than simply “an
unfinished business”.
These events correspond to the letter sent by the Mapuche to the
Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army Ricardo Martinez dated March 3, 2021, in
which he was asked not to enter the Mapuche territory due to his responsibility
in the crime of genocide, and such actions represent an open wound with the
Mapuche People.
Wallmapuche, Rimuguen Kuyen, June 1, 2021.
###
Colonization cannot be sanctified.
And apologies do not bring justice.
Communiqué to the Vatican:
DISMANTLING
the Doctrine of Discovery
With
the intention of addressing the systematic violation of Human Rights of the
Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala, in particular the Right of Self Determination
of Indigenous Peoples, and with the goal of instituting collective corrective
measures in repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery which continues to serve
as a mantel of camouflage for the pathology and colonization that deforms and
distorts the spirit and well being of our common humanity;
Our position is
that the Vatican State, the Holy See and Your Holiness Pope Francis must take
adequate measures and advance in the process of international responsibility
for the role that the Catholic Church has played in the origin and as intellectual
author of the criminal violations of Human Rights which continue to be
normalized by the Doctrine of Discovery.
We exhort Your
Holiness to make public comment in repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery and
in clarification of the contradictions here documented.
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