Switch Off
Four centuries after the devastating Spanish invasion of their native soil, the Mapuche Indians are again fighting their former enemy - this time in 1997, in the form of Endesa, Spain's largest hydroelectric company, which is threatening their way of life by constructing a flood-control dam. In we witness the unequal battle between Endesa, supported by the Chilean government, and the local Pehuenche-Mapuche Indians of the Alto Biobio region in the Andes. Local leaders, sympathetic lawyers and journalists present a disconcerting image of the deceit and illegal practices used to con the Indians out of their land and of how activists have been branded as terrorists in unfair trials and landed in jail for years. "We do not acknowledge Chilean justice, just as they do not acknowledge our rights," according to one activist, who is in hiding to avoid standing trial for suspicion of "terrorist conspiracy." The director of an independent newspaper explains how he was kidnapped and interrogated by secret agents about his role in this documentary. Meanwhile, the Endesa enterprise sticks to its director's adage that it is better to say nothing than to stammer, and refuses comment on the issue.