Sobre Psicologia

Dear members of the ICP:

70 days ago in Chile are on hunger strike Mapuche Political Prisoners, processed with the "Anti Terrorist  Law" was written during the Pinochet dictatorship, through the twin prosecutions, civil and military as well as other irregularities as the existence of concealed witnesses.

Despite the concealment of the subject communication, social organizations have advanced in the complaint and demanded the repeal of the "Anti Terrorist Law" and more recently the creation of a dialogue table to enable better solutions.

Faced with these facts, a group of leading psychologists in Chile is making public acts and has submitted a Declaration to send the President of the Republic. Attached to the bottom of this post the document.

Regards,
Marcelo
Photo and Video

Public Statement of Psychologists on the Mapuche Conflict.

An increasing number of Chilean psychologists have made public their concern on the way the Chilean government has met the complaints of the mapuche people, confronting their demands for space and territory in which to preserve their culture and traditions. There has been a lack of dialogue , of coexistence and of real participation to recognize the cultural differences -political and economic- that would explain the defense of their lives in communities.

Even more serious, the mapuche nation has become a legal collective subject: in the context of a postdictatorial era, an Antiterrorist Law, elaborated during the military dictatorship, is applied to them. Different international organizations have pronounced themselves on this particular, the United Nations, such as the special Rapporteur for Indigenous Rights (2003), the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights of the UN (2004) an the Human Rights Committee of this same entity.

From a psychologist standpoint , it is well known that certain forms of government by action or omission may construct or legitimize , or in cases such as in Chile , re actualize the conditions for learning social behaviors of apathy and conformism based on authoritarianism. The door is therefore open to qualify them as institutional remnants of state terrorism, extraneous to processes of democratization.

Addtionally, as sociocultural studies in this field have shown, not to acknowledge alternative political and economic voices on account of cultural and historical conditions in a neocolonial context, represents a form of ethnocide , a deplorable matter impinging on the rights of people and communities hindering the performance of their life projects and the characteristics of the mapuche culture.

From a discursive standpoint we call special attention to the dehumanized treatment that is being given to the members of the community on hunger strike , the indifference to constitute a dialogue table, and to recognize an institution of mapuche origin, its dignity and form of life, and consequently to have the right to decide significantly on the way they should be governed.

If you are a psychologist and would like to join the list, please send your name to georg.unger@gmail.com or marcelo.urra@psicologico.cl

If you are a psychology student, please send your name to

dilcia_mendo@yahoo.es