Digital Granma International
SANTIAGO DE CHILE, Oct. 10.—Around 12,000 people took part in a peaceful march in defense of indigenous Chileans on Hispanic or Columbus Day, a festivity scheduled for October 12, the date of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas, this year moved to October 10 in Chile, EFE reports.
 Protestors demand the liberation of all Mapuche political prisoners. Photo: AFP |
Manuel Díaz, spokesperson for the Meli Witran Mapu (From the Four Corners of the Earth) organization, stated that the indigenous peoples are demanding "freedom for all the Mapuche political prisoners and the restoration of their ancestral lands," currently the property of agricultural and forestry companies.
It is a mobilization repudiating the invasion of more than 500 years ago, but also a mobilization which criticizes the role of the state and the economic model in relation to the indigenous peoples, the march communiqué notes.
MASSIVE PARTICIPATION IN REFERENDUM
Close to half a million people voted in an Internet referendum on education in Chile, whose results, with a 57% count, showed 95% of participants in favor of public and free education, PL reports.
According to the Social Table for Education, organizers of the referendum, more than 422,000 Chileans resident in the country and in 25 other nations managed to cast their vote online, despite the saturation of the web pages and accusations of intentional blocks of the network.
