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CHIP News for October 7, 1998

>SOURCE:  EL MERCURIO
>SOURCE:  LA TERCERA

>        --  MAPUCHE AND PEHUENCHE OCCUPY CONADI OFFICES.  Ten
>Mapuche and Pehuenche occupied Tuesday the offices of the National
>Indigenous Development Board (Conadi) in Temuco, Region IX.  They
>protested the arrest of their "brothers" Monday in the Upper Bio Bio
>and demanded that newly appointed Conadi Director Rodrigo
>Gonzalez step down.
>        Gonzalez later called the police and the 10 were arrested but
>released shortly afterwards.  The "brothers" arrested Monday had
>occupied a bridge near the construction site of Endesa's US$500
>million dam, to protest the dam and stop all traffic over the bridge.
>        Mapuche Erwin Colillanco said there are indigenous groups
>disposed to use any means to make their protest heard, and it was
>the police, not them, who had illegally occupied "our house."   Conadi
>advisor Francisco Chodiman said he was hit by the police during the
>incident and if that he had been in a different mood, he might have
>tried to defend himself.  He said the indigenous people do not
>recognize Gonzalez as Conadi director.
>        Land council Consejo de Todas las Tierras advisor Jose Nain said
>the government has become public enemy number one for the
>Mapuche people, and that democracy is just a military cloak meant to
>protect the interests of multinationals.
>        Rodrigo Gonzalez downplayed the event, saying Conadi advisors
>are utilized politically and do not represent massive indigenous
>sentiment.  He said various efforts at dialoguing with Nicolasa
>Quintreman, who is strongly opposed to Ralco and says she would die
>struggling, had failed.

Chile Information Project

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Aleta Brown
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International Rivers Network
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