The coordinator of the relatives of the 32 Mapuches who are on hunger strike in Chilean prisons said the strikers’ health worsens. Two 18-year-olds joined the protest.

On Thursday, the Mapuches completed 53 days without food.

A spokeswoman for the families, María Tracal, said the strikers are in a critical stage. They are experiencing the loss of muscle tissue and the shut-down of vital organs like the lungs, kidneys, heart and liver.

Therefore, in recent days several of the detainees in prisons in the south of the country had to be transferred to hospitals.

The spokesman of the Mapuche prisoners in the Angol jail, Jorge Huenchullan, told the Noticiero Ciudadano that the strikers “would rather die making history before spending 100 years in jail”.

On Wednesday, demonstrations were held across the country to support the Mapuches’ claims.

They oppose the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Act and reject the proposal of improving it issued by the government.

Also, two 18-year-old Mapuches joined the hunger strike.

José Ñirripil and Luis Marileo found themselves locked up at the juvenile prison Cereco de Chol-Chol because they were arrested before they had reached adulthood.

They explained in a letter that the “drastic action” they took “is due to no response from the government to general petitions demanding the release of the large number of Mapuche political prisoners on hunger strike”.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios

32 Mapuche prisoners have spent more than 40 days on hunger strike in Chile. They are considered political prisoners by the application of the Anti-Terrorist Law. They were imprisoned for recovery actions of ancestral lands.

The Mapuche went on their hunger strike in jails in Temuco, Concepción, Angol, Valdivia and Lebu.

To put an end to the fast, they demanded that the Anti-Terrorist Law not be applied in Mapuche cases. They also demand that the Mapuche will not be judged by military courts.

Finally, they demanded the “demilitarisation” in Mapuche areas and that the ancestral lands be returned to the different indigenous communities.

The arrested villagers are accused of various acts of resistance and recovery of usurped ancestral lands.

A new issue of special reports in the series “Long Tongues”.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios

Relatives of the Chilean miners trapped 700 meters deep in the San José mine filed a lawsuit against the owners of the site and those responsible for the state’s National Service of Geology and Mining (Sernageomin).

The lawyer representing the miners, Ramberto Valdés, said the company’s owners would be charged with injury.

Likewise, Sernageomin officials should be held accountable for having resolved in 2008 to reopen the mine, which was closed in 2007.

At the same time, the Justice should investigate the alleged payment of bribes to order the opening of the site without meeting the necessary safety requirements.

Valdés said the representatives of the company, Alejandro Bohn and Marcelo Kemeny, could be responsible for their property before the possible bankruptcy of the company.

For his part, the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera, announced penalties on 23 August for “all those who have responsibilities” in the San José accident.

In addition, Piñera announced the creation of the Committee for Safety at Work, which will develop recommendations to improve the conditions of Chilean workers.

On the other hand, the union secretary of the company Minera San Esteban, Javier Castillo, said in 2003 the workers presented an application for protection to stop work on the San José mine before a Court.

However, he said, “This was not successful.”

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios

The deputy of the Communist Party, Lautaro Carmona, said the 33 trapped miners demonstrates the working conditions of small and medium-scale mining.

Carmona said, “The endurance of the miners created the condition to specify labor reforms in order to give security to the workers.”

Cristian Cuevas, president of the Confederation of Copper Workers, said the accident also revealed “the precarious situation of workers in the copper industry” in Chile.

Moreover, the former director of Labor, María Ester Feres, said that between January and March of this year, there were 155 workers killed in work-related accidents. Feres was the Labor director during Ricardo Lagos’ government.

It is estimated that the rescue of the miners will take between three and four months. This is because drilling of the rocks is required to provide an exit for the trapped miners.

Monday produced the first telephone contact with the 33 miners trapped in the San José mine in the Atacama Desert, property of the San Esteban mining industry.

During the communication, the miners related that they tried to escape through a chimney, but it did not have a safety ladder. It was confirmed by the Minister of Mining, Laurence Golborne.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios