A conflict between Mapuche community members from Hualapulli and the owner of a property in the Liumalla sector, a place that is located on the road that connects Villarrica with Lican Ray, ended with the death of Eloy Alarcón Manquepan, a 33-year-old Mapuche youth, who was shot in the chest around 10 this morning.
For weeks there has been a climate of tension in the area. On May 5, Mario Briceño Medina, 51, who is being held for the death of Alarcón, filed a complaint with the Carabineros for threats against the Mapuche community member who is now deceased, after receiving a possible notice of “land claim” from Alarcón and other community members.
The issue in question is that precisely in that property is located in a “menoko” (Mapuche sacred site that contains a large amount of medicinal herbs), which goes to the aid of the medical care of Alarcón himself and the community in general.
According to Briceño Medina’s version, “he was at home when three neighbors arrived, one of them with an axe and the others with machetes, who began to threaten him. At that time, according to his version, the person who had the axe tried to assault him, so he shot with a revolver of his property, wounding him in the chest.”
In an exclusive conversation with El Mostrador, Marta Yáñez, a Mapuche lawyer specializing in the defense of indigenous peoples and close to the community of the deceased, denied this background, providing different information on the facts.
How did the situation that led to Alarcón’s death come about?
-Eloy was in company in one of his brothers when they made access to one of these territories where precisely one of the objectives was to extract Mapuche medicine, since he is a person who treats himself in a priority and preferential way with Mapuche medicine with the machi of his community, Catalina Huequeman and in that context he accesses this property. In fact, whenever the machi needed Mapuche medicine, it was Eloy who went to the different wetlands or menoko to extract the medicine that the machi needed.
-Is there a previous background after what happened?
-About 10 days ago, the murdered community member contacted me very worried, since in the adjoining sectors where usually the communities extract medicinal plants, there were neighbors who were cutting menoko, wetlands, where the machi takes remedies to supply and prepare the medicine of the people of the community, then he communicated very distressed, very sad, very discouraged, very concerned about the situation and in fact in the coming days, both Eloy and the machi Catalina, were close to filing an appeal for protection for this situation and given that the irregular parceling and the destruction of the natural spaces of the communities persisted, I understand that as a territory they were initiating or talking about possible processes of territorial recovery. I have no further history of this situation. I understand that it is in this context that the unfortunate death of Don Eloy takes place. I don’t have any greater background.
-What state is the community in after Eloy’s death?
-The machis and medicinal authorities of the communities are very distressed and concerned about this situation, since the weapons that killed the Mapuche community member are in the possession of private individuals. Even outside the police station, they told me recently that they had been threatened with weapons by relatives of the one who killed Don Eloy. Faced with this they are very worried and distressed because they do not have weapons, they are not used to this treatment. Here there is clearly a climate of violence, weapons in the hands of individuals, it is worrying. The machi told me that she is very afraid for her life, for her physical and mental integrity, on the part of the relatives of the person who is being charged with the crime.
-Is there information that if indeed a prior notice was made to Briceño Medina of “vindication of those lands”?
-I do not know if it was indeed so, but I would not be surprised because in general Mapuche people before exercising or sending a right that they claim, always communicate in a public or transferive way. So if they told a neighbor that they were going to start a recovery process, it would not be surprising if they had done it verbally. I do not know more background regarding this, but generally the recovery processes have been characterized by starting in this way, via verbal communication to those who present the ownership of the properties that are in territorial dispute.
Was there any particular concern of Eloy regarding this problem prior to his death?
-That’s right, in fact the time I was in communication with Don Eloy, he told me that his mother’s ex-partner, who has no Mapuche origin, obtained indigenous status from CONADI, in order to buy Mapuche territories and then parcel them out and thus favor the territorial dispossession of the communities. This was a situation that was of particular concern to the communities in the sector. I understand that in the coming days I was going to initiate relevant administrative and legal actions, but unfortunately today we learned of this cowardly murder.
Follow us on
