Transcripts For DW The Battle For Land 20240713

Boasts some of the most stunning natural being in chile. The region has been called the chilean switzerland not just for the mountains but also because of the 22000 swiss immigrants who arrived here in the late 19th century. In. February is harvest season in chile. Even it looks in august brother harald run son to rosa a farm covering some 60 hectares of land. The 2 men are proud of the property and of what their forefathers biltong. But the land they call home is also being claimed by their neighbors members of them up to change. Some of the Indigenous People who work on the looks in this field this farm hands during the harvest get paid by quantity im not very much. Other im approaching insist the land belongs to them and not the man of swiss descent. Into hell the same with the. Weve always had good relations with our neighbors but its to get to our family have been living in this region since 1000 or 8 more than 100 years. In months and hold that one more that he has of thats the whole that we build up a sound relationship and i wouldnt i have school. Thats it and thats how ive known it since i was a boy. Like this and thats why its so difficult for us to understand our could come to this. Sort of state and we saw us often get on this. Question on the farm has become dangerous since 2900 rows or has been subjected to repeated attacks leg size the size the still must sometimes its a fire. This is all sometimes theyve got bits of iron in the fields direct the machine is going to be my field that double game lead to sabotage has caused huge economic damage to the family theyre now fear for their livelihoods. The looks ignas used to have seen 120 dairy cows. Today the cash heads are empty. The brothers had to sell all their cattle after an arson attack in 2015 that left the dairy in ruins. Them and ive been 3 putt on just the start of if you have a business and its destroyed and you have nothing left all you have are bank debts. You have to start all over again and say what am i going to do now that they leave my parents are still alive when my father refuses to sell so thats how things are going to stay and buy at the inn so its all me. But theyre looking as a very much on the back foot their parents have already moved away from the farm out of fear of further attacks. Neither evolved nor household feel its safe to move in. They vultures us damage from the most recent attack. At all and they fired shots and mr action. Descendants also had canisters of gasoline with them with the intention of burning their house to the ground. Lead the bus comes from the regional capital to mccall lead. Once a week the trucker family go shopping in the city for items there are unable to produce back home on a farm. The truck culture among them a preacher family is fighting to have the land returned to them. As the older son one bears responsibility for the family hes 26. 00 and is a geology student the dispute between a child councilman looks in as has been going on for almost 20 years 1st it was over water rights and then hand. One studies limit the amount of time he has to work on the farm his family is extremely poor and the 10 hectares of land hell too little to really survive on they make and sell their own handicraft a little extra money to fight over the land is a fight for their future and 1. 00 conducted with little mercy. A lot of. This land belongs to our ancestors. So really its ours by right and. Thats what i am against threatening other families and resorting to violence. But the fall need. A lot of my put it disapprove of that which. I see. But destroying the machinery that is wrecking our land i mean. This is a reaction to state violence. And i meant it but they have its ok for a little. Iran kony a is the bread basket of chile thanks also to the settlers. In the 19th century they were invited to come by the government germans italians french and 22000 swiss who turned wild pastures into arable land. Look cygnus were among the 1st settlers to arrive. Today the family owned a number of farms until considerable wealth. A Family Gatherings in particular its clear that the former immigrants have grown and to a closely knit clan. Let me catch. The Younger Generation tend to converse in spanish while their older relatives speak reasonable german although they have lost the swiss dialect except for the odd word or phrase but they still feel an affiliation to the old country during the gathering they share old family photos documenting the ancestors arrival in the new world. This was the familys very fast house here which they built themselves. The ship that brought the 1st looks it has to chile on a month long voyage. The contract with the chilean government granting 40 hectares of land to each cetera. And the founding patriarch sebastian of the last words. It was family a few years earlier to escape poverty. The family originally came from ending in the canton a glamorous and soon a thriving enterprise in chile they bought additional land and the 2nd generation then moved to the area around to call. The sisters as disturbed this is the 1st plot crossed my grandfather bought it. Looks ing on. The looks thing a brothers then bought up more land 1300 hectares of the ticket just this else to try to hold the fact that this starts in the wires would complain that all the money was spent on new land instead of the houses in the land and that i could see ourselves its. As a looks again as in many other set of families became wealthier than appreciate became pora now theyre demanding the return of the land that was taken from the land of the settlers have been farming for the last 140 years. Just a proud of the history of course thats a fair also we didnt get anything for free and its what id say if anyones responsible for whats happening now its the state says yes it was the state that colonized the area. Resettle 2 small plots of land while the rest was auctioned off at the slightest just type. Of stuff but now the look cygnus find themselves at the heart of the conflict for jorge on terrace a conflict the town deadly and 2013 his parents were the victims of an attack in the very house where the family has gathered today the emergency cool was recorded by police. Now. Under. Her breath. And let her. Know you know. You know im proud of our own no no you know i dont know. How i really. Felt i know hed. Be going to you know i arrived at the house a little later is there come you know on the way there i could already see that it was on fire it started in the kitchen what was i think i only just missed the attack of the football move but what can put in a moment longer think of time of him. One will hear i went looking for my mom and. She called me a few minutes earlier get to my we spent the whole night searching for her. The next morning we found out that 2 bodies had been discovered in the house. But it had already burned to the ground. And contrary to what we had hoped. They turned out to be the remains of my parents were booked on and like i said on the. High end 3 senses brothers have since rebuilt the house but nobody lives there now the family use it to host gatherings its also a signal to the perpetrators. Where they may need where you can come and burn everything down but i know you can kill us but you will never achieve your goal. Forget the you are the work. Your thirtys arrested 3 more put in connection with the attack. One of them was has a truck the father of one trucker in the initial trial he was acquitted but after the government launched an appeal he was sentenced to 18 years in jail jose fled before he could be imprisoned. As his son c. S. The father is the victim of political machinations. And i meant to say listen whatever. 9 people in the indicted but if they could all of them people who were potential leaders for others they have the knowledge and ability to make successful land claims against the state i mean. Think of them. But its on a theater with the land in question is controlled by the settlers and the look singers are a prominent example one of them looking thats why they wanted these people in jail for the fun of it they were with the people they blamed for the murder of the couple where the people fighting for the rights of the mob put you know that although. Their father jose was indeed one of the leading figures in the land dispute for decades had been at odds with jorge looks enough. But also true is that the evidence presented by the police in the 1st trial was rejected on the grounds of suspected manipulation. In the eyes of hers as children the trial amounted to a conspiracy against the father. For the approach in general because a truck col is seen as a martyr in the fight for that peoples rights. Because his defense lawyer has come to see the family as always on fort. Worth defending them up which is hardly a lucrative assignment the way it is. People are. Following the verdict by the countrys highest court theres little public will take a can do for the talk owls has only recourse is to appeal to the into American Court for human rights where he sees far better prospects for his client and. Pulls a young guy by going to trial one of the. Obviously authorities he tells us he used what was called Anti Terrorism that is lation introduced by the pinochet dictatorship. The laws imposed severe restrictions on Legal Defense and ortega says they constitute a clear violation of International Norms of a chemical ali and that already the antiterrorism legislation was used by pinochet to arrest protesters campaigning for social rights. And now this very same law is being applied in the conflict with them approaching your dont really meant to mark this is i meant that. Theyre using the same law and the same criteria introduced by pinochet to take action against them or put a community or a community which. Was a bit off. But thats not all says the lawyer he accuses the authorities of ensuring a politically influenced verdict determined by pressure from the socalled settlers. Here were going to let the funding that you know yes we need those in the descendants of the big landowners are represented at all levels of society in the courts the police and the administration. Really are they only see things from their viewpoint who have no chance against them. Dont get a little in over here but. The odds dont seem to be in the favor of public or take it sees it as a fight against the judicial system that favors the rights of the ruling class. He said in a similar situation. Her husband was also sentenced to 18 years in jail and is now likewise a fugitive. Her family is among those who have challenges talk or looks or not. For 9 years they fought a conflict with him over land now lee says he was living on a piece of land that used to be looking us but he said once more. That you either cant come up with chicken looking at the other and those who would tell you there are still a lot of my poochie families who have no land that People Struggle is not over yet and that is why the truck counts were found guilty on the model but its purely political and especially in the case of lewis because he tried to claim back the land of another looks thing or what they might have because its about us as a community we have the right to a life in dignity that the settlers should go back to their own countries were not there not from here but we want to go. And he said is not seeking personal gain what he wants is to undo a historical injustice. Shes proud of her identity she dresses and traditional attire and roast sweet according to old customs. He said as her own share of suffering such as raising her children without a father to me and me for her violence is a legitimate means to resolve the conflict. Yes in this life if you want to drive the settlers away you have to hit where it hurts and thats economic power. Yeah thats why people started burning down the crops and killing their cattle that a few well you know yes well of. The middle here but dont forget that the violence began with the state against the math people well im up with it was the state that brought the centers here the state started the war with the pacification of our cornea and forcing us to live in small areas where everybody. Pacification as they euphemistically used to describe that chapter in history for them approaching it meant occupation and subjugation. The chalange state seized 90 percent of the semi nomads territory and confined them to reservations the loss of land also meant losing their way of life them approaching werent able to cope with that changed circumstances. The land given to them by the state was of poor quality and in contrast to the surplus they received no support. I once prosperous people them approach a sank into poverty. Yes a bottom up what if in fact what do the people do in this situation they tend to self defense and that strategy of self defense includes Political Violence as we call it. And those of them. That Political Violence and his own boycotts by boycotts we mean actions directed against the settlers economic power against industrial forestry and mining. Against all enterprises that exploit our resources let us not god of course not without having without the. Centuries past the muppet you successfully defended themselves against the incas and the spanish conquistadores. Set sees herself in that same tradition. Talking andrus mixing i have this from a few kilometers away. Hes been planting young vines which is why hes drilling for water a Precious Resource for his house and for the greatest. Work of his family also got it by police day and night. Hes been living with the threat from them approach a for decades and is for many with their demands for more land but for the from the border the poverty among them approaching here in the countryside is clear to see. It work you have to put yourself in their shoes when you think about it from the you but i cannot accept the resulting divine words. When they burn down farms or entire harvests or when they murder people in doing so they avenge injustice with injustice. Or if i come to think of it if it was your. He cites the lay in the hand as a major reason for the violence its a low regulation never turn of lantern approaching and the states attempt at compensation for a historical debt but some say the law was ill conceived. Im going to you develop at a level that the law encourages violence. In think its supports land purchases precisely when there is a conflict. Over me that this is how conflicts are being consciously stirred up in recent years and the. Ok ill conflict the expro faith i didnt abels the process of land restitution to be exonerated mother ritual. But me and of the same time but i was to behave lawfully disadvantaged they were that of a local but. Here another field has been raised by fiat. By february when the summer comes to a close in the Southern Hemisphere Political Landscape is part. Fires occur regularly at this time of year one act of carelessness is enough to trigger spontaneous combustion assem as another course. The wheat fields of hector or bone have fallen prey to fire on repeated occasions in this case the flame spread of no naaman case the farmers family were able to stop the inferno just short of their homes. Even looks and i heard reports of the attack and has come to see the damage suffered by his fellow family and friends. And. Still its thought to go israel this is the yield from an entire year bred as if we didnt need this you know getting a lawyer. Thats all thats left of the harvest. Their bones have had 8 arson attacks this year alone losing a total of 46. 00 hectares of wheat. Under the circumstances its difficult to understand why the family dont just give up. You know to make you know the name of film we have you know well the choice. Is not the name of the day no its that or nothing only go at the other way that we have nowhere else to go this land is all we have and to move somewhere else wed have to sell it. So that nobody would buy it. As one of the families caught up in this conflict we feel betrayed by the chilean state doesnt yell put it in our cine. The state looked abroad to switzerland and germany france and italy to recruit people to work here and make the nation a great he said we need not the other cities around the missouri. To mco the regions capital and financial center. The Central Market features many not preaching from the region who come here to sell their products. Its also where the various communities come together german settlers swiss settlers and indigenous. If theres one thing they agree on is that the state has misled its people and ultimately is to blame for the conflict its never made a serious effort to harmonize relations between the different groups instead it is played them off against each other only to now leave them alone in a struggle. Looking is a far from the only victims of the violence. The attacks and now directed against various institutions of society. Ever takes us to motive the local business association. Multi gremio it wants to see peace for the region and peace here means the state taking tough for action. Lamb well they less than murder the assassination of the looks in a mkhize in their home is the result of unrestrained violence though now even when you have i would hope of your lentil absolute i mean the state is incapable of punishing a group who are extremely well known that theyre not going to see from the police to the intelligence agencies and the judges it is incapable of issuing sentences that will put the perpetrators away once and for all. That any sense of not. Matter costs us shows us how rapidly the number of attacks has increased over the last year. The dispute over land she says poses a threat to Train Society as a whole. She therefore supports the use of the anti terror law dating back to the time of the pinochet dictatorship. But that goodness enough is enough now we have nothing to do with pinochet but the law can ensure security in the 21st century do it provides for information gathering that can be used to prevent radical groups from attacking their fellow citizens who hear it as. The authorities stand accused of using pinochets means to suppress them approaching and using the indigenous law to reward finance they failed to get to the root of the problem. Torn between different political Interest Groups chile seems further away than ever from finding a solution. It looks a god takes us along to a womens group who wants to raise awareness nationwide for their problems from farm attacks to violence against their children and having to live in constant fear. A little. The Group Numbers 400 members this woman is a farmer with german roots she agrees to talk to us if we dont use her name she is used to the group being dismissed as right wing but for her its a personal issue. You missed it is my niche in that i want my children to grow up in peace i dont want them to have to move away that the scene is this is their home this is a hiding that. Shes recorded all the attacks on the calendar. We the harris poll have seen how the media do not report on these incidents so people in santiago have no idea about them and so we asked ourselves what we could do to visualise the problem for people thats why weve been compiling a calendar since january 2016 and thats at 5000 sesterces. Taken together the results are shocking every month there are more days with attacks. Of course this is an attack on your property on your lives depending on the circumstances but still the question remains can you appreciate why the mapuche to say we want the land back that was once taken from us. Him. He have us of unfun fashed i did understand it at 1st. But now they have so many tracts of land and theyve received so much help. The believe that i dont and they do nothing with it still it has its unproductive land now and im a farmer and when i see that all they grow are moola and peek a piqua. Me then i dont understand it. Stage just. The accusation of them approaching a lazy and unproductive is a common one among settlers but what the settlers see as laziness is for the Indigenous People simply living at one with nature. Im here to make a call and i saw that there was a little of which equality at all its about the money put his relationship with the earth and about balance. So that the uk we give the earth time to recover we dont go around transforming the forests rivers lakes and coastal landscapes that let you in knowing that of an event really respects nature as it is because we know that other animals also need it as a habitat also possible that they will say look at them in a fit theyre not only well if they are unlike the christians you had the muppet you do not subjugate the for their own needs they see it in its entirety and themselves as part of it for them nature has a soul. Go simple say i want to basilan you there is a place where the nguyen live there the guardians of the earth their spirits our ancestors are also me and. All of us you have to establish a profound relationship with the earth you have to recognise deep inside whod in the end are. Going to live without them we would lose our connection to nature. There are a lot of the end more than there are people we humans only have short lives in the end live forever. And were also saying is that simply. The 3 of them head off to a place where no man resigned to ask their permission. And if theres any way. They can play into the new and that they have been falsely blamed for the death of the looking us. As a gift for the spirit they sprinkle flour into the water. The police often under a list of you know its necessary for them up nature has always been paradise we dont want to build great buildings the buildings of nature are more important than the buildings of people you know so this is why im like the aztecs and the mayans the muppets do not have great buildings getting. Colonize ation pushed us away from nature when we regain our habitat we will find our way back to plants to our faith our language and spirituality what to put it on. This is a sacred place for them a natural and untouched forest. Here they find countless plants and homes with properties and uses that. Pointed with. Do you want to tell said mark that if you get sick the guardian of the forest tells you in a dream which remedy you need because you are a more a part of the earth than we search for the remedy and when we find it we dedicate a prayer to it. On. You tube. Contacts us along to see how they could bear hes the longer our traditional chief of them are putting community. In with what we already giving. Him game over. The pontiff hes also a professor of history at the Catholic University of timo called he dale is convinced that an approach a have to rediscover their identity and pride in order to secure their rights not in a miniature new no question but that we lost all our rights and the right to education the right to medical care the right to dignity that it wont stop until we rediscover a roots of which them approaching have had everything taken from them among those doing the taking with a look seeing as when they 1st settled in the region know who. The old man conrad looks singha had a Grocery Store yet beyond allowed he saw that people were hungry and sold them food for them to live on. But the people couldnt afford to pay and got deeper and deeper into debt yet if so youre going to walk in to see were not. Looking at then a riot with the police he took away their animals all their possessions and eventually their land as well. If you have to look at how many hectors they started out with and how many they have today that are going to loosing you you can point to that and hoarder. During a Family Gathering we confronted jorge looks in what his account. None of that is true i mean none of it. So if you look in here youll see others everything the looks thing as got in the state was painful for the bit south of here never bought land belonging to the. Mists no not a single square metre from them up. It was all from private owners and. So from private farmers or. Whatever the truth is the past has always dog the looks of us and has made them a primary target for attacks as the Younger Generation can also testify. It looks to me like and im wary about going out on the street because its dangerous. You saw the someone might hurt me and when these issues come up at my university. Im afraid to speak my mind because its too dangerous. You know you express our opinion but get away disappointed us. Heres hoping dresses dorson joyce had to have Police Protection when she went to high school but shes determined to stay put. I love this land. If i have children i want them to be able to live here to. Live and. Let the others have had enough. To be even given not given the. Conflict is something weve been living with since the age of 5 were sick of it all and yet again. Theyre well educated and have little interest in. Their parents struggle is a few to one in the eyes of the next generation. I think the situation for them approaching is a different one how. They see an opportunity to take their fate into their own hands. As they do at the rep of mccain way 1st of all. There are no commercial sponsors involved and no police. Real singing teacher come from here quantum siblings have jobs at the festival and in money needed for the appeal theyre planning at the entire American Culture of human rights. They want their father back. Little village so they get it once in a 2nd another when someone is sentenced to so many years in jail its as if they died and i also see the on your list that says this is the father is missing in the family. But he is missed by the children this was for me in their midst in the house and in the fields. Before its hard and we know hes innocent innocent. Looking to. Kill. Him a pucci feel criminalised by a state that discriminates against them they feel marginalized and want to own autonomous society. Away from the main stage theres a gathering of political activists here at. The. School to seal it that. They discuss various issues life in the Community Politics and new forms of the fight for liberation. Its a palm and a platform for discussions and exchanges of opinion and opinion making. You. Want to put in something which of the people talked about. Their experiences in the liberation struggle and voice their opinions on the Current Situation i think its important and that we should do it in the future to to win more people to the cause you know what 1st we discuss matters with each other and then act thats the right way and feel that if. Its an event that brings together festivities with political activism. I. Cant harm himself will soon be taken to the stage the guilty verdicts for her say and ways have a wider impact than just how much a car family he says that he calls the sentences an attack on the entire. World that. I do that in the middle. Ages it was an unjust verdict in the looking a trial. Mci against our brothers the trial because theyre on the run from the racist chilean government. But we will continue to fight for our freedom for all ptolemy and selfdetermination i. Mean fighting for independence from the state that has oppressed us for so long. We want freedom for our country and freedom for luis and jose trial were going to say theyre very very good there were i i. 10 days after the Public Appeal by one and the siblings the police found and arrested cross a truck and really struck all. I. States policy towards them approach it remains contradictory. Neither the left nor the right seem to have a viable resolution to offer as the battle for the land continues. The. Greenland is melting and the buying grain has already begun the melting of the ice sheet in the country has exposed a valuable land china and the u. S. Are already there and new companies are being set up. Welcome to time is this consequence of Climate Change a threat or an opportunity. Some pissed on europe. And 30 minutes on d w. Pioneers of the world at their feet but success can be outgrown or a coaster ride. On the go. To mind what kind of person do you have to be to bet everything although the dots taiko your own way even if that path is fought with risk Pioneering Spirit the phenomenon and its Economic Impact again made in germany. On to. Assist the rooms are always a symbol of a long conflict in the philippines between the muslims and the christian population. Play as fighters occupied the city center. President due to response was. Cool this is not the kind of freedom that we. Did moron we become a deep way to islamist terror. An exclusive report from a destroyed city. In the sights of i. S. I. Starts may 20th on t w. This is t w news and these are our top stories the e. U. Has agreed to set up a Recovery Fund to help economies hit by the coronavirus outbreak the European Commission is to work out the details decisions on divisive issues such as common bonds has been postponed until the summer