Mapuche communities mobilize to reclaim land

Sev­er­al Mapuche com­mu­ni­ties have begun to reclaim tra­di­tion­al lands in Arau­ca­nia, cen­tral Chile.

The recla­ma­tion began on July 23, about 2 weeks after the gov­ern­ment of Michelle Bachelet refused to sit down with a group of Mapuche activists and talk about their con­cerns as Indige­nous Peo­ple.

The activists had trav­eled 680 km to meet with Bachelet, hav­ing already wait­ed for weeks to hear from from Araucania’s gov­er­nor about estab­lish­ing a dia­logue .

Before head­ing home, the group left Bachelet a let­ter, stat­ing they would take action unless the goven­r­ment addressed their con­cerns.

On July 23, the Mapuche began to occu­py prop­er­ties they iden­ti­fy as part of their tra­di­tion­al lands, includ­ing one held by a log­ging com­pa­ny. Road­blocks have also been set up in at least 5 dif­fer­ent areas in Arau­ca­nia.

The so-called left­ist gov­ern­ment final­ly decid­ed to respond—with vio­lence. The police were sent in to pro­tect the log­ging com­pa­ny and evict the Mapuche – a “vio­lent occu­py­ing force” as far as the gov­ern­ment is con­cerned. “Both Mapuche and police were injured in the clash­es” that fol­lowed, says IPS News.

Sev­er­al oth­er attacks against the Mapuche have also been report­ed.

Last week, the para­mil­i­tary group “Her­nan Trizano Com­man­do” also came for­ward and pub­licly threat­ened to blow up and “dis­ap­pear from the world” sev­er­al Mapuche lead­ers involved in the recla­ma­tion, start­ing August 3.

“In response, Sen­a­tor Ale­jan­dro Navar­ro, the pres­i­den­tial can­di­date of a new polit­i­cal par­ty, the Movimien­to Amplio Social (MAS – Broad Social Move­ment) announced… that he would file a law­suit invok­ing the anti-ter­ror­ism law against the para­mil­i­tary group,” IPS con­tin­ues.

The gov­ern­ment itself does not appear to be tak­ing any for­mal action against this imme­di­ate threat. Instead, they are embold­en­ing the vig­i­lante group by claim­ing the Mapuche effort is noth­ing more than “vio­lent actions” led by a small minor­i­ty: sev­en of Chile’s 2,800 indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties.

Juan Car­los Curi­nao, a Mapuche “Lon­co” or Chief, respond­ed to the claims in a recent inter­view with IPS.Curinao said that the mobi­liza­tion is in fact led by 40 Lon­cos, who togeth­er rep­re­sent every Mapuche sub­group.

He also said that the recla­ma­tion is non-vio­lent. “We don’t car­ry weapons to go around hurt­ing non-indige­nous set­tlers, we are fight­ing for our cul­ture. It is the state that has attacked us, shoot­ing at us.”

“If I occu­py prop­er­ty, it’s not vio­lence; I am reclaim­ing my ter­ri­to­ry,” he added.

While “there is no solu­tion in sight”—-in large part because the gov­ern­ment refus­es to abide by inter­na­tion­al law and sit down with the Mapuche—there’s a small chance that things will turn for the bet­ter this week. The Sen­ate has announced that it will hold a spe­cial ses­sion on Wednes­day, Aug. 5 to dis­cuss “the secu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion that is affect­ing the region of Arau­canía.”

Updates in English:www.mapuche.nl. Updates in Span­ish: www.observatorio.cl