Mapuche conflict

De facto Chilean territory and Mapuche groups in Araucanía in 1860 prior to the occupation of Araucanía.

The Mapuche conflict (Spanish: Conflicto mapuche) is a conflict involving indigenous Mapuche communities centred in Araucanía and nearby areas of Chile and and Argentina. It is often referred to as a conflict between Mapuche communities and the Chilean government or state. Big forestry companies and their contractors, Chilean police and some non-indigenous landowners have faced violent opposition from local Mapuche communities in the context of the conflict.

Mapuche activists demand greater autonomy, recognition of rights, and the return of historical lands. The Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) supports the national liberation of the Mapuche people from Chile.^[1] The Mapuche conflict intensified following the return of democracy in the 1990s, with Mapuche activists seeking to rectify the loss of ancestral territory during the Arauco War.^{[2][dubious – discuss]} The Mapuche lack a central organization and individuals and communities carry out their struggle independently and by different means.

The conflict has received the attention of international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, who have criticized the Chilean government's treatment of the Mapuche.^[3] The Chilean government's usage of the "Anti-Terrorism Law" in the conflict is a focal point of the controversy surrounding the conflict.^[4][5] In 2013, the United Nations condemned the use of the Anti-Terrorism Law against Mapuche activists.^[6]

Background[]

Wenufoye, the flag used by the Mapuche people in Chile.

The Mapuche conflict surfaced in the 1990s following the return of democracy.^[2] The conflict started in areas inhabited mostly by Mapuches like the vicinities of Purén, where some indigenous communities have been demanding that certain lands they claim for their own but which are now the property of logging and farming companies and individuals be turned over to them.^[7] Several Mapuche organizations are demanding the right of self-recognition in their quality of Indigenous peoples, as recognized under the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The official 2002 Chilean census found 609,000 Chileans identifying as Mapuches.^[8] The same survey determined that 35 percent of the nation's Mapuches think the biggest issue for the government to resolve relates to their ancestral properties.^[8] The official 2012 Chilean census found the number of Mapuches in Chile to be 1,508,722.^[9]

Historian José Bengoa has likened the Mapuche conflict to the Catalan struggle. Bengoa adds that both conflicts were major concerns for the 17th century Spanish Empire and remain unresolved.^[10]

1990–2009[]

1996–2004: Ralco controversy[]

The building of the Ralco Hydroelectric Plant, Chile's largest hydroelectric power plant, in the 1990s was highly controversial among Mapuches and pro-Mapuche groups as it was to flood allegedly sacred land including one Mapuche cemetery. After compensations were paid the plant was finally finished in 2004.^[11]

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2009 incidents[]

Demonstration in Santiago, after the killing of two Mapuche activists.

Numerous incidents such as violent land occupations, burning of private property and demonstrations have occurred in Araucania. In the wake of the recent deaths of a few of its activists, Mapuche organization Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco has played a key role by organizing and supporting violent land occupations and other direct actions, such as burning of houses and farms, that have ended up in clashes with the police. The government of Michelle Bachelet has said that it is not ready to contemplate expropriating land in the southern region of Araucania to restore lost ancestral territory to the Mapuche.^[12]

The government set out to buy land for use by 115 Mapuche communities, however, according to government officials, the current owners have nearly tripled the prices they are demanding. On the other hand, the effectiveness of the government policy of buying and distributing land has been questioned.^[12] Two special presidential envoys were sent to southern Chile to review the increasingly fractious "Mapuche situation".^[8]

2010–present[]

2010 hunger strike[]

Flag of the Mapuche-Tehuelche people created in 1991; symbol of their claim in some Argentine-Mapuche areas.

Between 2010 and 2011, a series of hunger strikes by Mapuche community members imprisoned in Chilean prisons to protest against the conditions in which the proceedings against them took place, mainly due to the application of the antiterrorist law, and for the double prosecutions they were subject to, because parallel proceedings were carried out in the ordinary and military courts.^{[citation needed]}

The strikes began on 12 July 2010, with a group that was in preventive detention, some for more than one year and a half, all accused of violating anti-terrorism legislation.^[13][14]

January 2013 events[]

A march was held in commemoration of the death of Matías Catrileo in Santiago in January 2013. During the march a group of masked men attacked banks and threw molotov cocktails. Later the same group caused incidents near Estación Mapocho.^[15] The commemoration was associated by newspaper La Tercera with the assault and torching of a truck in Chile Route 5 in Araucanía Region.^[16]

In the morning of 4 January 2013 the agricultural business couple Luchsinger-Mackay died in a fire in their house in Vilcún, Araucanía Region.^[17][18] The prosecutor said it was arson in a preliminary report and newspaper La Tercera linked it to the commemoration of the death of Matías Catrileo and to the truck burning the previous days.^[19] A relative of the dead persons claimed there was a campaign to empty the region of farmers and businessmen adding that "the guerrilla is winning" and lamented the "lack of rule of law".^[19] A male activist wounded by a bullet was detained by police 600 m from the torched house.^[18] A thesis claims the house was attacked by at least seven persons and that the "machi" had received the bullet wound from the occupants of the house before dying in the fire.^[18]

On 30 April a freight train was derailed near Collipulli to be then assaulted by men with firearms.^[20][21] Interior minister Andrés Chadwick said the will be applied to those responsible for the attack.^[20]

2016–2021: Upsurge of the conflict[]

Since 2016, there has been an increase in attacks in the region, especially against churches, machinery, forest industries, and security forces.^[22][23] For their part, "the military police (GOPE) often intervene violently, on the side of the companies, intimidating the Mapuche communities, acting indiscriminately against women or minors."^[24] The priest Carlos Bresciani, SJ, who has spent 15 years heading the Misión Jesuita Mapuche in Tirúa,^[25] doesn't see autonomy coming easily, given the disposition of the Chilean Senate, but he says "The underlying problem is how communities participate in decision-making in their own territories".^[26][27] Bresciani observed that the violence "reflects that there is an open wound."^[28] In January 2018, while saying Mass before thousands at Temuco, "the de facto capital of the Mapuche community", Pope Francis called for an end to the violence,^[29] and for solidarity with "those who daily bear the burden of those many injustices".^[30] In 2018, Camilo Catrillanca, the grandson of a local Indigenous leader, was shot in the head during a police operation in a rural community near the town of Ercilla. His death triggered nationwide protest leading to seven police officers being convicted in connection with the shooting.^[31]

On 20 December 2019, the UN urged Switzerland to stop deportation of Mapuche activist Flor Calfunao to Chile on concerns over her human rights, including the risk of being subjected to torture.^[32]

On June 16, 2021, a police officer was wounded during clashes with suspected indigenous militia groups in the Biobío region. In the same region firefighters volunteers were caught in the crossfire between police forces and indigenous militiamen while they were trying to get to the La Pasión farm to put out a fire.^[33]

On July 6 2021, protest erupted during the opening constitutional session, with citizens demanding an amnesty law for political prisoners that were arrested during the country’s political unrest in 2019.^[34]

On July 10 2021, during an armed clash at the Santa Ana-Tres Palos farm in Carahue area, Araucanía, police shot dead Ernesto Llaitul, a son of a Mapuche leader.^[31][35] Later in late July fighting was reported between state forces and suspected indigenous militias the Araucanía and Biobío regions. In the Tirua area, Biobío, armed men ambushed a police unit, injuring two police officers. Finally, in the Carauhe area, Araucanía, militiamen exchanged fire with police officers carrying out a protective order outside the building of a logging company. Two police officers and a worker were injured, before the suspects managed to escape.^[35]

See also[]

• Indigenous peoples in Chile
• Indigenous peoples in Argentina

References[]