Force-feeding and Mapuche Autonomy

Performing collective rights in individual prison cells in Chile

Bibliographic Data

ID2170171
AuthorsLeith Passmore (corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume23
Issue1
Pages1-16
Publication date2014-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Latin American Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1356-9325 • E-ISSN: 1469-9575
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13569325.2013.877430
OpenAlexW1985926198
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited17

In August 2010, the decision was taken to feed thirty-two Mapuche prisoners spread throughout prisons in Chile's southern regions intravenously and against their will. Imprisoned Mapuche activists had in the years previous turned to the hunger strike to protest their conviction under anti-terror legislation and the conditions of their incarceration, and the Chilean government eventually responded by force-feeding or threatening to force-feed starving inmates. This paper examines the performativity of the confrontation between prisoners refusing food and the authorities seeking to feed them against their expressed wishes. It analyzes how the strategy of self-starvation and the debate about the hunger strikers' right to make choices about their own bodies enabled starving prisoners to embody the broader struggle for Mapuche autonomy. The distinction between the individual and the collective eroded as the debate moved between, and overlapped, international conventions on the ethical treatment of prisoners and the rights of indigenous peoples. As a result, the collective struggle of the Mapuche people was performed in individual prisons cells, as the Chilean penal system emerged as an important new front line in a centuries-old conflict

Autonomy · Conviction · Criminology · Front (military · Geography · Government (linguistics · Indigenous · Legislation · Political science · Prison · Sociology · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America

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