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Security & Strategic Review - January 2014 (ISSN 1741-4202)

CHILE: Anarchists behind attacks in Mapuche heartland?

The security forces had warned as early as November 2013 that the Mapuche heartland in Araucanía faced the prospect of another wave of militant actions similar to that of a year earlier. By early December a communiqué had begun to circulate in social networks calling for the staging of a protest campaign between 30 December and 5 January, commemorating the 6th anniversary of the death of Matías Catrileo, a Mapuche militant killed by Carabineros during a land invasion. Plans began to be drawn up  to strengthen the police presence in Araucanía and step up intelligence gathering — but the violence began earlier than expected, and the authorities did not know for certain who was behind it.

On 27 December the main building of a rural estate in Vilcún, east of Temuco, was set on fire. Officials ventured that the authors might be connected with the same Órganos de Resistencia Territorial (ORT), an offshoot of the radical Coordinadora de Comunidades en Conflicto Arauco Malleco (CAM) which last year called for agitation in memory of Catrileo, an episode which became notorious for the brutal murder, also in Vilcún, of the farmer Werner Luchsinger MacKay and his wife [SSR-13-01].

One detail introduced an element of uncertainty: the arsonists had left behind a pamphlet in Mapudungun (the language of the Mapuche) which proclaimed, ‘Land or War’ in the name of a previously unknown Comando Pirómano Sebastián Oversluij — named after an anarchist killed in mid-December during an attempted bank robbery in Santiago.

Worth noting: four days after this incident, the CAM’s political committee issued a communiqué saying, ‘We urge all those who insist on intervening in the Mapuche struggle, wherever they come from, to abandon that path and interventionism, because the only thing they achieve is to distort and confuse our ancestral struggle with Western ideological influences that do not reflect our cosmovision and culture.’ Anarchist groups in Chile regularly present their actions in terms of solidarity with the Mapuche cause and in defence of Mapuche ‘political prisoners’.

Targeting helicopters

On 28 December at Temucuicui, Ercilla, a firefighting helicopter came under ground fire upon landing to load water. That same day in Santiago, close to the La Moneda palace, an explosive device was detonated at a branch of the Banco Estado; the absence of any pamphlet claiming responsibility puzzled the police about the motive.

It was only at this point that more than 100 Carabineros from the Metropolitan and Los Ríos regions were sent to reinforce police patrols in the provinces of Malleco and Cautín in Araucanía, and Arauco in Bío Bío, and aerial surveillance was ordered over potential hotspots.

Three days later in the province of Malleco, Araucanía, helicopters stationed at a base of logging firm Mininco were firebombed. One was destroyed, another badly damaged. The hooded attackers overpowered a responding group of Carabineros, injuring one and seizing his weapon.

By this time forest fires had been reported in six different locations in Araucanía and farmers in Ercilla were claiming that these were being started deliberately by ‘terrorists’ with the intention of attacking firefighters and responding Carabineros. Plausible as this may sound, it must be kept in mind that the whole region has been placed on red alert because of the increased risk of fire at this time of year.

On 1 January in Temuco a bomb exploded at a private residence, and two others were detected and deactivated, at a branch of Banco de Chile and the local police courthouse. Almost simultaneously two bombs were found up north in the Metropolitan region, at Carabineros stations in eastern Santiago and Ñuñoa. Police reported that all three of the Temuco bombs were gas canisters coupled with bottles of inflammable fluid, said to be a ‘signature’ of anarchist devices.

Looking beyond the Mapuche

The governor of Araucanía, Andrés Molina, announced that investigations had been launched to determine whether anarchist groups were involved in the recent attacks in Temuco. The police delegate in Araucanía, General Jorge Rojas, sounded more certain. ‘We believe,’ he said, ‘that [the attackers] may be a movement of anarchist leanings rather that a movement resorting to violence in furtherance of the Mapuche cause.’

For its part the central government appointed a special public prosecutor in charge of investigating the incendiary attacks in Araucanía, Alberto Chiffelle. Interior minister Andrés Chadwick concurred with governor Molina stating that ‘there are some indications that the attacks are not only the work of ethnic Mapuche extremists, but that there could also be links to anarchist groups.’ Investigators, he said, would also be looking into possible connections between the incidents in Araucanía and the others that took place in the same timeframe in the Metropolitan region.

While Araucanía governor Molina said that the regional government would press for charges to be brought under the anti-terrorist law against those found to have been responsible for the attacks, chief national prosecutor Sabas Chahuán said that ‘for the time being’ he would not be invoking the anti-terrorist law, but would be looking at charges for arson and the placing of explosive devices.

He did not, however, entirely rule out recourse to the anti-terrorist law, recalling that the public prosecution service had invoked it ‘in more than 18 opportunities since 2000.’ It must be recalled that the government had come in for strong criticism from the political opposition for using the anti-terrorist law against the Mapuche activists, and that on several occasions the courts had considered it inapplicable.

The violence in Araucanía did not end. On 11 January, off the highway linking Caragua and Imperial, six trucks and a frontloader belonging to a contractor engaged in roadworks for Mininco were set alight by persons who left behind leaflets demanding the release of Celestino Córdova and other ‘Mapuche political prisoners’ and stating that they are not anarchists or Marxists but ‘Mapuche autonomists’. Córdova, a Mapuche machi (shaman), is the only person charged with the murder of farmer Werner Luchsinger MacKay and his wife during last year’s week of agitation in memory of Catrileo. His trial, several times postponed, is now scheduled to begin in February in Temuco.

Up to the time of writing the Chilean police had not come up with any firm evidence of links between specific anarchist groups and the string of attacks in Araucanía. The media have picked up speculation by some police sources, based on past performance, that a new spate of protest actions may be launched as Córdova’s trial gets under way.

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