COMMUNIQUE OF THE HUNGER STRIKERS

The political prisoners who support this communique wish to inform the women and men of our people as well as social, political and cultural organizations and human rights groups and all those who are fighting for a more just society, that we began a hunger strike (only taking liquids) starting at midnight, Monday April 12 and we will continue until the following objectives:

1. The freedom of all political prisoners through the proclamation of a Law of Pardon which is sitting without action in Congress
2. Immediate freedom, using our legal rights to probation and parole, for those who are eligible to it.

We know that the demands we raise in this action are ambitious and will only be achieved with extreme sacrifice and the committment to struggle until we win.

We are starting a Hunger Strike because no other alternative is left to us and the time to resolve this issue has arrived. This is the conviction that moves us, not voluntarism or desperation. The issue is to put an end to agreements that have not been fulfilled, the time is over for the legal maneuvers. We are political prisoners and we have a duty to struggle, even though we may risk our lives to end our imprisonment. We have on the average 12 years of imprisonment in a Higfh Security Prison which has not been stingy in its punishments in sanctions against our conditon of fighters.

The juridic-political alternative to obtain our freedom has passed through a long road of mobilizations, difusion, and legal maneuvers. ....The lack of interest is shown in the poor application of the laws regarding probation and parole. Several companeros are eligible , and several have been freed. It is only a question of implementation.

The political solution which we are fighting for is not without problems, among other the proposed Law requires repressive requirements and control. On the other hand, a section of the right wing is trying to link our demand for freedom with the issue of impunity. We are opposed to this as we are building an alternative wihich is far from and opposed to impunity. This has been a permanent struggle for the political prisoners from the very start of our militancy through our imprisonment. We do not accept an exchange like money with those those who violated human rights.

Lastly, we call on our supporters to mobilize for Freedom without forgetting that there is a Mapuche political prison which needs also our active solidairty. We ask for the means of communication run by the people to break the information wall and spread news of the peoples struggles.

We call on workers, students, those who live in poor neighborhoods, those who have been marginalized, those native peoples who have been marginalized, political, social, artistic, cultural and religious organizations, to diverse communities and peoples, to our brothers and sisters in exile, to all those who continue fighting, to mobiize with us against capitalism and neoliberalism.

NO VOICE SHOULD REMAIN SILENT AND NO RAISED FIST SHOULD SURRENDER

WE'VE HAD ENOUGH - FREEDOM FOR ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS

Pablo Vargas Lopez, Jorge Espinola Robles, Esteban Burgos Torrealba, Hardy Pena Trujillo, Jorge Mateluna Rojas

HIGH SECURITY PRISON APRIL 12, 2004 / (translated by Earl Gilman)