Support Lonko Juanita Political Asylum Process

Mapuche Chief Lonko Juanita Millal is currently in a Political Asylum Process in the Bay Area. We are a group of indigenous right supporters, environmentalists and abolitionists fundraising to help our elder transition to life in exile in Huchiun, land of the Ohlone people (AKA East Bay, California).

The Mapuche people are in the struggle against modern day colonization in Chile. As Mapuche Chief of Comunidad Chol Chol de la Granja, Lonko (chief) Juanita is a holder of Mapuche culture and wisdom, a weichafe (warrior protector of mother earth), and a community elder and organizer. She is fleeing violence and political persecution in Chile and is seeking political asylum in the U.S.

We believe Juanita’s life is at risk if she returns to Chile, where she will be incarcerated at the minimum.

Lonko Juanita has dedicated her life to uplift Mapuche culture, protect the land, waters and the people, creating solidarity among marginalized communities and bringing awareness of the Mapuche peoples’ present day fight against colonization, displacement, incarceration and violent repression.

In July 2023, Lonko Juanita arrived in the U.S. to deliver a letter to the United Nations in New York on behalf of a coalition of Mapuche communities. Raising alarm over the harm being done to the environment by corporations on Mapuche lands and escalating state terror and repression inflicted upon Mapuche communities by the military and forestry companies, her letter highlights the ongoing theft and colonization of Mapuche lands in the south of Chile. The letter also shares how the Chilean government is holding several Mapuche activists as political prisoners, including Hector Llaitu. Lonko Juanita was expected to return to Chile in October but received threatening visits by police to her home. She currently cannot return home because of state repression she and her family is facing, in the form of incarceration and the targeted killing of family members.

Because of her extraordinary case, the wonderful team of lawyers at East Bay Sanctuary Covenant in Berkeley moved her up to the front of the line to receive asylum services, and we expect she will have a work permit in the next 4 months. This is an emergency ask for support to help her during this time of transition.

WHAT YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS WILL FUND

Since she arrived in the Bay Area in October 2023, Lonko Juanita has been receiving urgent support from wonderful people in the community with her most immediate needs with her asylum process: legal support, health care, housing, food, transportation, etc. However, her sponsors and supporters cannot continue to sponsor her costs of living out of pocket. We expect Lonko Juanita will receive her work permit in May 2024 and could begin working in June 2025.

Lonko Juanita needs support with about $1,600 a month to supplement her costs of housing, food, transportation for school, cell phone bill, etc. Any additional support she receives will help her send some money to make urgent repairs in her family’s home in Chile, which was flooded last rainy season.

OTHER WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT

MORE ON THE MAPUCHE STRUGGLE FOR SOVEREIGNTY

In addition to forestry companies using violent measures to take their ancestral lands, their culture and way of life, the Mapuche people are also facing environmental destruction of the rivers, wetlands and other natural resources. Juanita and her son, Rodrigo Cortéz, were among the first to denounce the murder of the young Mapuche leader Camilo Catrillanca who was murdered by Chilean police on November 14, 2018. Her son was assassinated by police exactly four months later on March 14, 2019. There has been no justice for her son's murder. Her son was strangled to death and hanged on her door for her to find and erroneously classified his murder as a "suicide". Lonko Juanita has also been arrested in retaliation for speaking out internationally about the Chilean police’s deadly forces and the killing of Camilo.

Mapuche land protectors and are being targeted by the government. The Mapuche people have long faced discrimination and marginalization in Chile, with their environmental and political activists often subjected to harsh treatment under the “anti-terrorism” law.

This issue is not just about Lonko Juanita – it's about the systemic injustice faced by Indigenous communities worldwide for protecting the forests, the rivers, the environment from extractivism. Currently she is advocating for the release of 4 Mapuche political prisoners in Chile who are on hunger strike.

MORE ABOUT LONKO JUANITA

Juanita Millal is Lonko (chief) of the Chol Chol Group of La Granja (Santiago) and a member of the Lonko Council, recognized by Chile’s National Corporation for Indigenous Development (CONADI). She is a former political prisoner during the Pinochet dictatorship and played a major role in Chile’s uprising in 2019 "Primera Linea" standoffs. She became well-known for being at the frontline to protect protestors from Chile’s military police during massive demonstrations against growing wealth disparity in the country, privatization, and inequality. In 2021 she ran as an independent candidate to rewrite a new constitution for Chile and end the one created during the Pinochet Dictatorship in 1980.