Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Coordinadora Arauco Malleco |
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| Participant in the Mapuche conflict | |
Emblem used by the Organos de Resistencia Territorial (military arm) in sabotage actions awarded by the CAM. The image represents a guemil (symbol of Mapuche iconography) with a Mapuche clava inside it.
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| Active | 1998–present |
| Ideology |
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| Leaders | Héctor Llaitul |
| Area of operations | La Araucania Region and Bio Bio Region |
| Allies |  Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche |
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Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) is a radical, militant indigenous organization engaged primarily in political violence in their pursuit of attaining an autonomous Mapuche state in Wallmapu, which, according to them, would only be the revindication and recovery of former Mapuche lands.
Founded in 1998 in Tranaquepe, Chile, CAM arose from the revitalization of the Mapuche conflict that decade, motivated by the extreme poverty and discrimination their ethnic group had to undergo for over a century, ever since the Occupation of Araucanía. CAM considers their own actions to be but fair self-defence amidst a struggle of national liberation, and their politics combine Mapuche traditions, Western political thought and knowledge acquired through experience.
CAM is responsible for several land occupations in the zones of Tirúa, Contulmo, Cañete and Temucuicui, and is known for resorting to arson against logging trucks and rural estates operating or located within the territories they claim as their own. Although occasionally such attacks have affected civilians, they aim to damage the property of those who "have usurped their homeland". Most of their actions are carried out on the sly, but sometimes they have resulted in confrontations with the "Fuerzas Especiales" of Carabineros de Chile. CAM has also backed minor Mapuche communities in taking direct action against forest companies and landowners who exploit the region, by lending them paramilitary support – a way of exerting political pressure.
The gravest case to which CAM has been linked to is the murder of Werner Luchsinger and Vivianne Mackay, a couple of wealthy farmers who died in an arson fire in their country house located in Vilcún, in 2013. After being found by the police that night – bullet-wounded and less than a mile away from the Luchsinger's farm – machi Celestino Córdova was held responsible for the attack and later judged and condemned for the crimes. He is still serving the sentence and is the only person to have ever been formally charged for the death of the Luchsingers. CAM claims that he is innocent and was used as a scapegoat, and therefore considers him to be a political prisoner.
See also
In Spanish: Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco para niños
