History of Mapuche self-determination organising

Sources for this page

Each number marks a specific claim. Notes give the source, its locator and how it relates to the claim.

1. 1.

   Claim: The Consejo de Todas las Tierras (Council of All Lands) was founded in 1990 in Chile, demanding the recovery of ancestral Mapuche lands, revival of the Mapudungun language, creation of an autonomous Mapuche government based on traditional Mapuche institutions, and constitutional recognition of Mapuche rights; self-determination was presented as the central focus of an eight-point public demand document, framed as autonomy and self-government rather than a declared independence campaign.

   • Mapuche people (Nationalia) link, Council of All Lands programme section. Source record
2. 2.

   Claim: The Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) was founded in 1998 in Chile as an autonomist Mapuche organisation seeking the recovery of ancestral territories and defence of Mapuche cultural, political and economic rights; CAM rejects Chilean state institutions and has pursued land occupations and sabotage targeting forestry and extractive industries as part of its self-determination claim.

   • The Radicalization of the Mapuche in the Southern [Cone] (RIET Journal, 2025) link, CAM founding and methods section. Source record
3. 3.

   Claim: On 18 June 2024, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in Huilcamán Paillama et al. v. Chile, arising from 1992 protests by the Consejo de Todas las Tierras following a First Mapuche Tribunal declaration that the Chilean state had illegally dispossessed Mapuche lands; the Court found Chile internationally responsible for rights violations in the criminal proceedings against the protesters and, in this and a related judgment, recognised Indigenous self-determination as an independent right under Article 26 of the American Convention, covering both a community's internal governance and its external political participation.

   • Expanding Frontiers of Indigenous Self-Determination: Recent Developments at the Inter-American Court (American Society of International Law (ASIL)) link, Ruling and self-determination findings section. Source record