Gabriel Boric seeks to build “a new path” with the Mapuche people in Chile

First modification: 12/11/2022 – 00:18

The new state attempt since the inauguration of Gabriel Boric as president of Chile to have 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 La Araucanía region, the head of state stated that “the conditions exist to start a new path” and open dialogue with the ancestral community that resides in the south of the country and that has led a fierce struggle 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 compare it with the Nazi procedures and the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. .

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 holding confrontations with forestry companies that have settled in the area and violate ancestral lands. .

This is the second attempt to re-establish communication that the current administration has launched in La Araucanía. The first was aborted as soon as it began after the procession that carried the then Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, was intercepted with shots by the Mapuche militias.

“We sin of voluntarism,” the president acknowledged this Friday, making a self-criticism of the “false step” with which they addressed such a complex issue. After the events against Siches, the current head of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, was able to gain access thanks to an agenda of economic reactivation and security.

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 broken 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 will prepare “part of the proposals to resume dialogue” to “address part of the outstanding debt that the State of Chile has.”

In the Mapuche lands there have been scenes of violence that led to the decree of a constitutional state of exception, extended eleven times by Congress and which began last May. This allowed the mobilization of hundreds of Carabineros, increased vigilance on the main routes and surrounding roads.

With this panorama, for Boric’s visit the number of police officers was increased and the president increased his custody.

Mapuche claim, 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 Mapuches have not distinguished from political colors. Except for a brief period between 1970 and 1973 during the government of Salvador Allende, both the military regimes, left-wing and right-wing administrations have not fulfilled 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 the debts. In the early 1990s, the State even granted 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.

Clashes against the companies or the police led to the arrest of individuals who later denounced harassment in jail. Including in the cycle of the current United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.

With EFE and Reuters