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On December 15, 2019, around 10 p.m., at least six hooded men arrived with sticks, firearms and incendiary elements at the home of Claudio Pilquimán Aguayo, in the rural sector of Ranquilhue Chico, in Tirúa. When they entered, they threatened the family and demanded the keys to the trucks with which he worked in one of the forestry companies in the area. Pilquimán refused to hand them over and the unknown persons began to shoot and beat the family. That’s when they managed to remove the hood from one of the attackers. To their surprise, they realized that he was from their own family. It was about Óscar Pilquimán, Claudio’s cousin. One of the shots hit Elodia María Aguayo Catril, her mother, in the head, causing her death.
This is part of the accusation presented by the Public Ministry for the crime of robbery with homicide against Óscar Pilquimán, for whom perpetual imprisonment was requested. His trial will begin next June and gives an account of how families that are at odds with each other live within communities because some of its members work for forestry companies while others are linked to territorial vindication struggles. According to investigators in the area, Óscar Pilquimán is accused as a “political prisoner” by the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM) and was one of the defendants who went on a hunger strike in the middle of last year in the Lebu prison.
Disputes in the area between the radicalized groups and the loss of influence of the CAM leader, Héctor Llaitul, Above other Mapuche cells, it is part of the complex panorama that exists in the so-called South Macrozone of the country and is closely followed by government authorities, intelligence and researchers.
In addition, Llaitul began to have problems with the communities that have agreed to work with the foresters, who are confronting the CAM leader, accusing him that they are not allowed to work. “This is the result of the CAM, directly from Héctor Llaitul. The only thing he wants is for no one to come here, for no one to progress, here we were drawing water from this community, they came in the name of the CAM, in the name of Héctor Llaitul, they came shooting, the only person responsible for this is the CAM, that the only thing that interests him is that no one enters here, many people colluded in this issue paid directly by Llaitul ”, says the audio of a video broadcast on social networks, where a burned truck of a team that was working for a forest.
Police records and those managed by the authorities show that since 2018 there are 310 attacks that have been claimed by different violent groups that operate in the South Macrozone. Of these, 160 do not mention a specific organization, but of the other 147, there are names that are repeated.
These are the CAM, Weichan Auka Mapu (WAM), Lafkenche Resistance and Malleco Mapuche Resistance (RMM). None of them functions as a proper organization, that is, they do not respond to a leader, spokesperson or organizational structure. Except for one: the CAM. That is why, warn police and government authorities in the area, that Llaitul’s figure has been losing strength.
“It was almost a coup”, mention connoisseurs of the conflict, given that what happened last Saturday with the attack on the TVN team, led by journalist Iván Núñez, impacted on the internal dynamics of these groups. They say it was to make it clear that he does not represent them all.
Of these four groups that have the predominance of rural violence in the Southern Macrozone, they are the CAM and WAM the two most iconic and transversal in terms of the territory they cover.
In the case of CAM, it began to operate in the area in the second half of the 1990s, with an ideological origin, more political than violent, say those who have followed their trail. Known is the step that Llaitul, one of its leaders, took by the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR).
However, over the years, according to police sources in the area, a more radical aspect began to emerge in the CAM. Even in the government and in the intelligence services of the police, they always linked Emilio Berkhoff with Coordinadora Arauco Malleco, but currently they position him closer to the WAM.
Yes OK there is no clear date of the origin of the WAM, different police reports associate him with a group of off-hooks from the CAM, with a more violent and radical turn. Their first appearance is located in 2016, through a public statement, where they claimed 30 attacks registered from 2013 to 2016.
On that occasion they said that “we are an expression of organic alliance, with principles and ideals attached to the thought and practice that our ancestors exercised in their process of coexistence, as well as a strategy of dignified resistance against the usurper and oppressor enemy.”
Unlike the CAM, the authorities have not been able to link them to leaders or middle managers. “Llaitul launches books, for example. They do not appear much, they do not have a face ”, they maintain in the government.
To have a clear reference, CAM and WAM must be located as two large organizations, they explain in the area. Following them are Lafkenche Resistance and Malleco Mapuche Resistance (RMM).
TO Lafkenche resistance is located in the coastal zone of the macrozone, in the communes of Contulmo, Tirúa, Cañete, Nueva Imperial and Carahue. On June 23 of last year, one of their most violent interventions occurred, when with an explosive device they knocked down a telephone antenna in the Quidico commune, in Arauco, Biobío Region.
Through a statement in which they claimed responsibility for the attack, they indicated that “With this we take a firm step towards the unity of the Mapuche Resistance in the Lafkenche area”. In the document they added that this “reaffirms the unrestricted commitment to expel forestry companies from the territory or any other capitalist expression that threatens the life of the Mapuche and the peoples.” It’s more, They are in full internal confrontation, with 12 communities that have members of their families as paid forestry officials.
On the other hand is the Malleco Mapuche Resistance, who move through the province of the same name and the communes of Lumaco, Traiguén, Purén, but mainly between Ercilla and Victoria.
This group, police sources say, maintain some ties with the Temucuicui community. Its origin is between 2016 and 2017, years in which there was a string of arson attacks on different churches in La Araucanía.
In addition, government sources identify a series of cells along Route P-72, where the TVN team was attacked. They seek to distance themselves from the CAM and unite when they have a common enemy. They call themselves the Lafquenche Strip. This group is made up of the WAM, Antequina, Tranaquepe, Huellanos and Quidico and they have control over the territory of Tirúa and Cañete, who unite for some purposes and also dispute the same area.
Since the Investigative teams from IX and VIII there is no consensus on this supposed “loss” of Llaitul’s leadership in the zone. In The Araucanía, those who participate in the criminal prosecution of acts related to rural violence maintain that since a while ago the leader of the CAM has been seen forging ties with community leaders in Temuco, Victoria, Traiguén, Collipulli and Angol. This has been read in the area as a reaction to the power that WAM is having that, in addition, has managed to have a greater presence in the province of Cautín. Added to this, say the same sources, the appearance of pamphlets in recent attacks with the slogan “Mapuche national liberation” in allusion to the old slogan of the group led by Llaitul.
In several investigations of La Araucanía, say the same sources, acts claimed by the WAM are registered and that are committed by Lafkenche Mapuche Resistance, over whom WAM would have ancestry, leaving aside the Territorial Resistance Organization that years ago was considered a cell of CAM in that territory. Who is the leader of the WAM? That for the investigators is still not clear, although some attribute that who would have that role is Fidel Tranamil, brother of Luis Tranamil, who today is in preventive detention as a suspect in the murder of Corporal Eugenio Nain (24).
In the Biobío, instead, they do not believe that Llaitul has lost power. They acknowledge that there are power disputes between groups in the area and cross accusations, such as the CAM statement in which it attributes participation in the attack to the TVN team to “yanaconas”, but they assure that between CAM and WAM there will always be links, since the latter are young supporters of Llaitul. In their own investigations into rural violence, say those same sources, there are links between the two in arson attacks, despite the fact that in Region IX – they warn – the use of weapons among these groups is different.
Regarding the pacifist role that Llaitul has adopted, in the VIII Region the investigative teams maintain that it would only be a media position. “The simplest way to congratulate yourself with the medium is to show a more conciliatory stance and having an armed wing is the oldest of political anarchy, but in the end it is smoke that comes out of it ”, says a member of the police and persecutors team that work in the macrozone.
Santos Reinao He was one of the people mentioned by Iván Núñez in his complaint for the attack on Saturday in Cañete. “To try to calm things down, we offered them their arguments in an interview that would take place the next day. In that place we spoke personally with the leader Gladis Huenumán and by phone with the leader Santos Reinao, “said the journalist in the legal action when addressing the warning that a group of strangers gave him when he returned from being with Llaitul.
Reinao is a candidate for constituency in the area. Both the authorities of La Araucanía and Biobío position him as the leader of 12 communities that are in the area, however, they do not syndicate him as a person linked to the violent claim.
“The journalist called me to interview me the next day. We are at that. I don’t know why he called me, ask him ”, he says to The Third PM.
In addition, he added that “I represent the communities of Puerto Choque, in Lleu Lleu, and I have no relationship with Héctor Llaitul (…), he is not the spokesperson or representative of the territory”.
Also, the leader maintains that “here it should not only matter when something happens to someone from a media outlet. We have many acts of violence that must be investigated by the justice system, I have always defended that ”.
