Image Source: .patricio on flickr 

521 years after Columbus, the Mapuche and other indigenous people are still experiencing the effects of colonization in Chile. The indigenous groups protested this past Saturday, Chile's Columbus Day celebration, and demanded the rights to their land and fair treatment. Read more on the Mapuche struggle below.    

### Via The Santiago Times

Mapuche groups and other indigenous organizations will march in downtown Santiago on Saturday in a protest calling for the the return of ancestral lands and the right to self determination.

Led by indigenous group Organización Mapuche Meli Wixan Mapu, the protest marks the 521 year anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. Opposition to the glorification of this day — “we have nothing to celebrate” affirms a press release — sets the stage for a litany of complaints lodged against the state from its treatment of its indigenous peoples, particularly Mapuche political prisoners and ongoing land disputes in the South of the country.

READ MORE AT THE SANTIAGO TIMES