CHILE: The Other 9/11 Anniversary.

GUARDIAN/ OPINION/ Raúl Zibechi:
"Of the many military coups faced by the republics of Latin America, it is the coup of 11 September 1973 that has engraved itself most permanently on the collective memory. The images of the bombing of the Moneda Palace, of the despair on the face of Salvador Allende shortly before his suicide, of the defiant expression worn by Pinochet behind his dark glasses and of the public burning of books that circulated around the world and became the symbol of military brutality.
   The dispersal into exile of 200,000 Chileans, most of them to Europe, added to the media images of men and women who had seen their lives destroyed by the death or disappearance of friends and relatives. The murder of thousands of political opponents and the detention and torture of people who were identified with the constitutional government isolated the military regime internationally."

CHILE: Imprisoned Mapuche Indians' Hunger Strike Joined By 4 MPs.

BBC/        Four opposition congressmen joined a nearly 2-month hunger strike by 34 Mapuche prisoners, who are protesting anti-terrorist charges in a land dispute. Many of the Maouche prisoners have lost up to 18kg (40lb) each.
The four congressmen, Tucapel Jimenez, Hugo Gutierrez, Sergio Aguilo and Manuel Monsalve, are all members of the human rights commission in the lower house of parliament.

LATIN AMERICAN TRENDS: Indian Political Awareness And Resistence Grow.

AP/MIAMI HERALD/
Throughout Latin America, there's a new political awakening among native Indians, who have lived like second-class citizens for centuries. Indians are 10% of Latin America's half-billion residents and in the Andes and Guatemala, they are far more numerous. Improved education and communications, like the Internet and the cell phone now allow local native leaders to easily share strategies with other countries.

Chile's Bachelet To Distribute More Land To Mapuches.

LAHT/
Between now and the end of her term in March, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet will distribute 33,000 hectares (81,500 acres) of land among Mapuche Indian communities in Chile’s conflictive southern region of Araucania.Since 1999, 650,000 hectares of land, most of it state-owned, have been returned to the Mapuches.
Once the current initiative is complete, he said, another 150,000 and 170,000 hectares will be needed to fulfill the state’s obligation to the 650,000-strong Mapuche nation, Chile’s largest indigenous group.

Chile's Native Indians Being Killed Over Land Disputes.

GLOBALPOST.COM.

"Large farmers and industrialists currently hold much of the land that the Mapuche claim as ancestral territories. Frustrated by the slow and inefficient government program that would return some of those lands to them, and feeling rebuffed by the authorities, dozens of Mapuche communities are resorting to simultaneous land takeovers, meeting with fierce police repression."