To our Mapuche nation, to our authorities: Pu machi, Pu lonko, Pu werken, Pu weichave, to the various lov and communities in resistance, to the Mapuche Warriache, to the Chilean people and the general public, the Mapuche political prisoners of the Grollmus Case, we come to present the following:
With more than three years of investigation and 10 months since it was formalized against us, we have seen how the prosecutor’s office, the political establishment, and the media, subservient to the economic establishment, have launched a defamation campaign against those of us who are currently accused and imprisoned in the so-called Grollmus Case. The investigation, led by prosecutor Danilo Ramos, is marked by a series of legal inconsistencies that only serve to prove our innocence and have led the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in alliance with the media, to use narrative and emotional elements that create in the public’s subconscious our anticipated guilt, violating the procedural guarantees that all defendants are entitled to, such as the presumption of innocence and due process.
An example of this is the immediate reaction to the statements of the Cañete Guarantee Judge, who publicly stated the inconsistencies and weaknesses of the case, which were reluctantly resolved based on testimony from protected witnesses of dubious origin. All of them, according to the investigative file, have pending criminal cases. Through these statements, they attempt to mitigate or absolve themselves of their criminal liability for other causes through the concept of effective cooperation. The Cañete Guarantee Judge was clear in pointing out that the corroborative elements required in any criminal case do not exist in this case, and that it will be very difficult to overcome the reasonable doubt that a guilty verdict requires.
However, after the judge’s remarks, Radio Bío Bío did not take 48 hours to publish an extensive interview with Christian Grollmus, which exposed all the colonialism, racism, and hatred that exist within the country’s dominant sectors and that currently have interests in Mapuche territory. Worthy of special mention is the pusillanimous nature of the journalist who conducted the interview, who portrayed himself more as a public relations professional than as a communicator committed to the truth and the facts under investigation.
There are several examples.
In one of his questions, journalist Oscar Valenzuela asks: What do you think about the court reviewing the precautionary measures of the defendants in the case, an act that demonstrates ignorance, real or conscious, that seeks to make the public assume that we Mapuche do not have the right to have our precautionary measures reviewed simply because we are Mapuche, and in the words of Grollmus, terrorists and criminals. Well, Mr. Valenzuela should know that the review of precautionary measures is a right that all defendants have, regardless of their ethnic origin, and that it is enshrined in the Code of Criminal Procedure, which he surely doesn’t know or has never read. And Grollmus, being a lawyer, didn’t object either, because the objective, clearly, is to continue fueling our guilt through the media in a case that, legally, is slowly crumbling.
In another of his interventions, Mr. Grollmus points out that we are all Chileans and that what happened at the windmill was a fight between Chileans and Chileans. What a thing to say, when they say it, we are all Chileans, but when it comes to criminal proceedings, some Chileans have more privileges than others. The icing on the cake was the open platform the journalist gave at the end of the interview, where Grollmus advocates for an extra bonus for the marines who torment our lov and communities and openly expresses his desire for Kast to be the next president of Chile.
Given this scenario, we can only conclude that there is an entire political, legal, and media apparatus seeking to pressure the judges who will decide the case in the oral trial to convict us at all costs, despite the lack of evidence and the weaknesses of the case. Even so, from the Concepción prison, we maintain our conviction to fight for the rights of our Mapuche people and reaffirm our innocence. We know that the media campaign will continue, creating external conditions outside the legal framework that aim to perpetuate our imprisonment, allowing foresters and landowners to continue to unleash their petty interests in our historic territory. But just as we know this, we are also certain that our people, our lov and communities, and the conscious Chilean people will come out to confront this campaign of lies and defamation.
Finally, we wish to express our solidarity with brothers José Arzola Millalen and Dagoberto Queipul, who have been on hunger strike for over 50 days demanding a review of their sentences. We also salute all the Mapuche political prisoners resisting in the various prisons in Valdivia, Temuco, Angol, Lebu, and Coronel. We also salute the Chilean political prisoners incarcerated in Santiago and Rancagua. We also salute the various Mapuche lov and communities that uphold the resilience and dignity of our struggle, despite the entire war machine the state has deployed in our territory, which today has overcrowded the prisons with Mapuche prisoners.
Freedom for all political prisoners, Mapuche and Chilean.
Unity in the weichan, marrichiwew.
PPM Grollmus Case
CCP Bío Bío, Concepción
Thursday, October 23
Source: https://lazarzamora.cl/comunicado-publico-presos-politicos-mapuche-del-caso-grollmus/