Chilean Congress extends state of emergency

Before the imminent visit of President Gabriel Boric to two regions in southern Chile affected by constant arson attacks, Congress on Wednesday approved the extension of the state of emergency that allows the military to ensure free transit on the area’s highways.

The state of emergency has been in force since mid-May in the region of La Araucanía and in two provinces of Biobío, 600 kilometers south of the Chilean capital, where minority sectors of the Mapuche ethnic group are forcibly demanding the return of their ancestral territories while the majority is about to obtain land restitution by peaceful means.

A few hours after the Senate approved the eleventh extension of the state of emergency by 27 votes in favor and one against, unknown individuals burned a house, two sheds, a truck and a sawmill with machinery on a farm in La Araucanía, in addition to four cabins in an impoverished commune in the region, according to police reports. The day before, the deputies had given their approval to the extension by 116 votes in favor, 20 against and 10 abstentions.

In a statement released on social networks, the Arauco Malleco Coordinator, an armed organization made up of Mapuche groups, called for a boycott of Boric’s visit and “not to fall into the government’s traps,” in apparent allusion to a political dialogue that the president seeks boost in the area.

“Boric will set foot on our ancestral territory, while extractivist projects expand in it and the prisons are filled with political prisoners,” the note adds. The government affirms that in Chile there are no political prisoners, but rather people imprisoned for crimes.

The details of the president’s trip to the so-called South Macrozone have been kept secret to avoid attacks in the places he will visit in the coming days.

Opposition senator José Manuel Ossandón, who voted in favor of extending the state of emergency, declared that “it is a shame that (Boric) cannot say” which places he will visit and when because in the South Macrozone “there is no rule of law” . He added that there are groups “that have declared war on Chile.”

The Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, present in the Senate room, pointed out that the latest attacks “are not going to prevent the presence of the president.”

Tohá specified to the deputies that during the validity of the state of emergency in 2021 and this year the attacks have decreased by 47%.

Boric was a strong opponent of the state of emergency that allows the Executive to use the Armed Forces to control public order, but just over two months after assume power in march The latter had to resort to the military due to the increase in attacks on farms and trucks traveling along the La Araucanía and Biobío routes.

However, it reduced the powers of the Armed Forces, which now cannot restrict the rights of mobilization and assembly, and ordered that they only control the main routes of the Southern Macrozone.

Boric’s government is working on a bill to create a variant of the current state of emergency whose validity is only 15 days, for which it is obliged to go to Congress every two weeks to renew it. The initiative will seek to extend it for 60 days each time.

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtubeand turn on notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.