First modification:
The President of Chile continues his mission in Araucanía, in the south of the country, where the indigenous community lives. After a Thursday convulsed by intimidating attacks by local factions, the president warned that there are “new conditions” to settle “the historical debt” that the country maintains with the Mapuche. He repudiated the attacks, which yesterday he described as a “terrorist” format and referred to “robust policies” to honor rights.
The new state attempt since the assumption of Gabriel Boric as president of Chile to have a communication with the Mapuche community continued its course this Friday, November 11, in the midst of a tense context and hours after an escalation of violence repudiated by the president on Thursday.
On the second day of his tour of the Araucanía region, the head of state stated that “the conditions are in place to start a new path” and open a dialogue with the ancestral community that resides in the south of the country and has led a fierce fight against the State for decades to defend their lands, expropriated and exploited by the authorities since the 19th century.
These friendly statements by Boric come a day after Mapuche opponents in the area incinerated a chapel and damaged vehicles, a methodology that was considered by the leftist as “terrorist” and came to be compared to Nazi procedures and the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. .
Boric stressed that it is possible to “isolate those who believe that violence is the means” and forge a link with what is the most preponderant indigenous community in the country, which is in conflict with forestry companies that have settled in the area and violate ancestral lands. .
This is the second attempt to reestablish communication that the current administration launches in La Araucanía. The first was aborted as soon as it started after the procession that was carrying the then Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, was intercepted with shots by the Mapuche militias.
Today I speak to the inhabitants of La Araucanía and also to all of Chile, so that with this Presidential Commission for Peace and Understanding, we advance and open dialogue in all the territories to lay the foundations for a permanent solution to the conflict. pic.twitter.com/61g8EmYWmS
— Gabriel Boric Font (@gabrielboric) November 11, 2022
“We are sinful of voluntarism,” the president acknowledged this Friday, making a self-criticism of the “false step” with which they approached such a complex matter. After the events against Siches, the current head of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, was able to gain access thanks to an economic reactivation and security agenda.
In his analysis, Boric stressed that “communication maneuvers cannot be carried out” and that they have to face the Mapuche crisis “with a solid and robust agenda” because it is “important not to disappoint people.”
However, he recognized that, after decades of conflict and unfulfilled promises, it is necessary to take concrete action and guarantee the inhabitants of La Araucanía access to basic needs.
In this sense, he announced that, after a meeting with the lonkos and other communities, they are going to prepare “part of the proposals to resume dialogue” to “address part of the pending debt that the State of Chile has.”
In the Mapuche lands there have been scenes of violence that led to the decreeing of a constitutional state of exception, extended eleven times by Congress and which began last May. This allowed the mobilization of hundreds of Carabineros, increasing surveillance on the main routes and surrounding roads.
With this scenario, for Boric’s visit, the number of police officers was increased and the president increased their custody.
Mapuche vindication, a story of empty promises and crossfire
The claim of the community in the south of Chile – which covers more regions than La Araucanía – began at the end of the 19th century, when the Chilean State was formed, including the trans-Andean lands of the south.
The problems with the Mapuche have not distinguished political colors. Except for a brief period between 1970 and 1973 during the government of Salvador Allende, both the military regimes and administrations of the left and right have not kept their promises.
Over the years, forestry and mining companies have advanced on land considered ancestral.
In history, the Mapuches had to confront the Spanish colonization and, later, the advances of the states of Chile and, on the other side of the Cordillera, Argentina. They were marginalized and expelled from those lands.
However, the worst moments were during the Pinochet dictatorship, who promoted the loss of territories in the hands of private companies that took advantage of natural resources.
During democracy, no government was able to pay off debts. Even in the early 1990s, the State issued licenses to build hydroelectric dams on the Bío Bío River, which led to the flooding of hundreds of hectares and the displacement of hundreds of Mapuches.
The confrontations against the companies or the police led to the arrest of individuals who later reported harassment in jail. Including in the cycle of the current United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.
With EFE and Reuters
#Gabriel #Boric #seeks #lay #path #Mapuche #people #Chile