Communiqué of Lautarino Political Prisoners on Hunger Strike in Chile

Published December 27, 2019


Esteban Bustos, Gilberto Mendoza and Ruben Rivas, members of the left-wing armed group MAPU Lautaro, released a communiqué, stating that they maintain the hunger strike that began on December 10 in the Maximum Security Prison of Chile.

The Lautarino political prisoners held in the Maximum Security Prison of Santiago de Chile inform the People of Chile, the Mapuche People and the international community that:

  1. We express our total repudiation of the repressive policy against the People of Chile, installed by the government and endorsed by the political class as a whole. Ignoring the cases of violation of Human Rights perpetrated by police and military during the last months, Piñera announces a statute to protect the police, giving impunity to the murderous and torturing beasts, on the same day that one study reported that the liquid from the water spraying cars contained caustic soda, causing burns to many people, showing the degree of power and police state detriment.

  2. That impunity has operated throughout the Popular Revolt, and today it does so in a more grotesque and aberrant way. With indignation, we saw on Saturday, December 21, how the policeman who hit a young militant with a car that sprayed gas, leaving him in a serious condition with his hips fractured. That is the treatment that we receive as Justice from the beasts, while the militants and revolutionaries are imprisoned, risking disproportionate and unjust penalties.

  3. As for the Armed Forces, together with the “Kayser Case,” where the military executed villagers and then burned their bodies, a journalistic study was uncovered a few days ago that reveals sexual abuse and rape of women and girls of our sisters, the Haitian people, by the military who participated in the “peace missions” of the UN, in an investigation of the participation of Chilean military in these crimes. To these facts, we add the institutional secret that protects violators of Human Rights, the systematic choreography by senior officers, the fall of the Army Generals due to corruption and human rights violations, the suicides of youth who are forced to fulfill military service, etc. We realize the abhorrent behavior that the military has had in these last 30 years, where democracy allowed them to do anything in impunity.

  4. The Power, in its desperation to regain control of daily life, has implemented the militarization of recurrent and symbolic spaces of protest, in order to avoid the massive and diverse expression of the People of Chile, but they have been shot in the ass, since the impetus and the will of struggle of the Chilean people in revolt has no limits, which was demonstrated last Friday around the Plaza de la Dignidad and in different regions of the country.

  5. The Chilena people in revolt already judged police and military, who will go down in history as murderers and torturers for attacking their own people. The same goes for the political class: everyone will be remembered as corrupt, for endorsing repression and an unequal and unfair system. Nobody supports them anymore, and wherever they go they will always meet dignified militants who in various ways are going to find them and cut them out.

  6. The Power urges to re-legitimize democracy, the mandatory vote, the parity agreement for the constitutional process, the plebiscite of the municipalities, among other things. On the other hand, the Chilean people in revolt continue in the streets, showing who has the pan by the handle.

  7. Regarding our political imprisonment, we inform that we maintain the Hunger Strike that began on December 10. We had to spend the 37th anniversary of the Lautaro movement on Strike, living this anniversary with the intensity that the historical moment deserves and with joy and enjoyment that characterizes us. A fraternal greeting to each comrade that has taken this life option. With regard to our weighings, we have lowered:

We also inform that on Thursday, December 26, at 10:00 a.m., we will have a hearing to review the precautionary measure at the Center of Justice.

Fuck capitalism and the Police State: nobody here gives up!

Freedom to the Political Prisoners of the Revolt!!!

Esteban Bustos, Gilberto Mendoza, Ruben Rivas, PP Lautarinos. Maximum Security Prison, Monday, December 23, 2019.