Radical Mapuche group claims fire and issues warnings to Boric

A radical Mapuche organization claimed responsibility this Saturday for an arson attack that left 15 houses burned in the south of Chilean area where there is a bitter territorial conflict between some indigenous people, the State and large agricultural and forestry companies.

In a public statement, the Resistance Mapuche Lavkenche (RML), one of the organizations of the movement “autonomist” Mapuche in Chile, issued a series of warnings to the new government and claimed responsibility for the burning of 15 houses that took place at dawn in Cañete, in the Biobío region (600 kilometers south of Santiago).

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“Less than 20 days after assuming the Government of borik His absolute ignorance of the territorial conflict that is being experienced in Wallmapu has already been made clear”indicated the letter, spread through social networks and local media.

The group assured the Executive has tried “show a permissive and kind face in the face of the territorial conflict (…), but without attacking the underlying problem”and that if the requirements detailed in the document are not met in less than 48 hours, “new mobilizations in all the territories”.

Among their demands are the immediate withdrawal of all lawsuits in which the Government is a persecutor in Mapuche causes; the transfer to education and work centers of all Mapuche detainees or that the Executive withdraw the lawyers who are part of the cases against members of the ethnic group.

After the attack, which left no fatalities or injuries, the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, announced an extraordinary meeting at La Moneda, the seat of government, after which no statements have yet been made.

In several regions of southern Chile there has been a entrenched dispute for decades between the State, some forestry and agricultural companies belonging to large economic groups and some indigenous groups that demand the return of lands they consider ancestral.

Within the framework of this conflict, which has worsened in the last year, there have been numerous disturbances, attacks on agricultural machinery and properties, hunger strikes by indigenous prisoners, fires and shootings with fatalities.

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These are the first days without the zone being militarized and under “Exception status”, a measure that was adopted last October by the then president Sebastián Piñera and that the current president, the leftist Gabriel Boricdecided to get up.

This same week, a government delegation led by the Undersecretary of the Interior had to interrupt its visit to Cañete due to roadblocks by demonstrators carrying flags of the Mapuche ethnic group and who prevented their passage.

The Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, also starred in another incident two weeks ago, when during a visit to the region of La Araucanía, also in the south, she was greeted by a burst of gunfire.

This did not prevent him from continuing with a full schedule of meetings with local authorities and victims of violence to initiate “dialogue” with all parties affected by the dispute.

Source: Elcomercio

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