Mapuche Leader Calls to Keep Fighting for the Indigenous Rights

Mapuche's people spiritual advisor (Machi) Celestino Cordova Saturday called for not stopping the fight for Indigenous rights in Chile, even if he does not survive his hunger strike.

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"If I die, don't let your guard down. Keep fighting until our ancestral Mapuche territory is returned to us," said Cordova after over 70 days of hunger strike.

After a two-months strike, he has lost over 20 kilograms of weight and suffers from bradycardia and permanent hypotension.

"His life is in danger and time is running out," Cordova's doctor Leonor Olate said on her Twitter account.

This Mapuche leader, who is serving an 18-year prison sentence, is the only one charged with the murder of the Luchsinger-Mackay couple in a 2013 arson fire. 

Chile's police found Cordova on the day of the events less than 2 kilometers away from the Luchsinger-Mackay farm with a gunshot wound. With no solid evidence, they assumed that he was involved in the attack.

Cordova began a hunger strike after his imprisonment to demand the Indigenous people and their inmates' rights to be respected. 

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have asked that our political prisoners be treated like other common prisoners. They deserve early release or parole," Coroba's spokesperson Cristina Romo said.

She also called for joining the struggle in the prisons and to continue fighting injustice until Chile's Attorney General's office gives in to Mapuche people's demands.