WCCC [Toronto] Public Statement – On the Recent Arrest of Mapuche Solidarity Activist Regarding G20

Jaroslava was arrested last week for G20 Conspiracy Related Charges

by WCCC

The Women’s Coordinating Committee For a Free Wallmapu [Toronto] communicates the following:

1. On Wednesday, September 29th, 2010, one of our sisters Jaroslava Avila, a Poltical Science student in her last year as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, was arrested on three charges of Conspiracy to commit and indictable offense outside the Fitzgerald Building when walking towards the subway on campus after an information panel presented by Health 4 All in the presence of her mother and another participant.
2. The people were brutally detained by a group of Special Force police officers, whom appeared out of the darkness in the gardens of the University, and promptly arrested the young student, while detaining her mother in a horrible act of violence.
3. The violent operative mounted in order to arrest a bright University of Toronto student in the presence of her mother is a shameful act and demonstrates the police brutality and irrational violence that we are confronting currently in Toronto on behalf of the police.
4. The setup of police vehicles and the disproportionate number of special force (mostly male) officers used in the arrest, and the insane arrogance unto a mother and her daughter is a shameful and criminal act of intimidation, which cannot be tolerated and must be sanctioned by the community at large.
5. These expressions of violence, of incarceration, of criminalization, political persecution, of non-association between people and their organizations, as well as the illegalization/informative gag that has been developing for the past few months, are clear tactics of public intimidation. This especially with our youth , to the men and women that have the future in their hands; that future must be ensured to them and cannot be chosen for them.

We parents, brothers, sisters and friends that come from a situation of tremendous violence perpetrated by State Terrorism, which took over our territories, our culture, our worldview and our lives as well as killed the best children of our people, are not going to allow that our children be harassed,  be jailed and sentenced without raising our voice.

State terrorism in so-called Chile is still being targeted, and people will not forgive the thousands that were murdered, tortured and disappeared.

The harassment our youth are facing from the Police in Toronto is looking much like the Chilean fascism during the dictatorship era with Augusto Pinochet, happily deceased, who represented one of the most sinister periods of our history, and is remembered as the worst species to have ever inhabited our territory.

We wish to leave a precedent with this abuse of power.  Today we ask ourselves: the arrests are arbitrary, detentions without justification, and then what? It is time to ask ourselves that question.

Fortunately, Jaroslava was release after two days in pre-trial custody, with $25,000 bail and extremely harsh conditions, adding to the traumas produced by the abduction including psychological and physical torture at Vanier prison.

We on the other hand, were in the midst of planning and promoting an event for October 8thin support of our Mapuche Political Prisoners currently on hunger strike, and the Toronto G20 arrestees, persecuted and wanted. Now more than ever, we have reason to continue to raise our voice and state: Stop the brutality! Stop the abuse of power! They have the nerve to talk about Non-violence, when they themselves are perpetrating the violence against defenceless people. Those that have suffered this State Terrorism are nearly children and it will slowly take over our lives, if we do not stop it in time.

Much Newen [Energy] and strength to all those affected. The WCCC [Toronto] has its heart divided... One part is there beyond the Andes with Our Mapuche Political Prisoners on hunger strike for nearly 90 days. Of the 38, thirteen have remained to make history and do not accept the scraps given by the government... For them, all our Newen [Energy] with all our love, along with the event keeping ourselves strong and building roots with our brothers, friends and allies. We are all together, until all the charges have been dropped...

NO ONE IS FREE UNTIL EVERY PERSON IS FREE!!!

MARRICHIWEU!!!!

(Ten Times We Shall Overcome!)

The Women’s Coordinating Committee For a Free Wallmapu [Toronto]

www.nobicentenaryonmapucheterritory.wordpress.com

Email: wccc_98@hotmail.com