At least 29 trucks used for transporting timber were destroyed in an arson attack in the early hours of 28 August in the Region of Los Ríos in the province of Araucanía in southern Chile. Responsibility for the attack was unclear, but it came in an area where radical Mapuche indigenous communities have been protesting for decades over the use of what they regard as their ancestral lands for commercial farming and logging. The incident has fanned controversy in the presidential election campaign.
President Michelle Bachelet condemned the attack, on a compound operated by Sotraser, a private company serving a local sawmill and a Celulosa Arauco pulp plant. She said she would not allow violence to overcome attempts to promote development and overcome exclusion among the country’s southern communities. Police said they were investigating, but that witnesses had seen hooded and armed men intimidate a watchman and set the vehicles alight. The damage was estimated at US$6m; the company says 70 employees have been left without work.
A number of Mapuches have been prosecuted for arson attacks against farms, trucks, and agricultural and logging equipment in recent years (see sidebar). The government said those responsible for the latest attack would be prosecuted under anti-terrorist legislation. In an earlier incident in August 18 trucks had also been destroyed.
A leaflet was reportedly found at the site in which a group calling itself Weichan Auka Mapu claimed responsibility. The name means ‘Fight of the Rebel Territory’ in the local Mapudungun language. The Mapuche community in Chile numbers around 600,000 and is mainly concentrated in the provinces of Araucanía and Bio Bio.
The incident rapidly triggered a political debate between presidential candidates. Former president Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014), who is currently the frontrunner in the opinion polls at the head of the right wing Chile Vamos coalition, used it to attack one of his rivals, Alejandro Guillier, who is standing with the support of Bachelet’s centre-left Nueva Mayoría coalition. Guillier had described the arson attacks as “acute violence”, but Piñera insisted it should be called terrorism. Piñera says there should be an economic development plan and constitutional recognition of the Mapuche, but that anti-terrorism laws should be applied in full.
All candidates from the centre to the right support tough action against what they describe as acts of terrorism. José Antonio Kast, an independent right-winger is one of the more extreme, calling for the “militarisation” of the south of the country.
Guillier in contrast says it would be wrong to describe the Mapuche as terrorists, or as a community that harbours terrorists, or to refer to Chile as an insecure country that suffers from terrorism. Beatriz Sánchez of the Frente Amplio (FA) left-wing coalition says the area should be “demilitarised” and Chile should grant autonomy to the Mapuche. Broadly speaking from the centre to the left the emphasis is on seeking dialogue while allowing the police and the courts to prosecute those responsible for violence. There is also a disposition to consider granting some kind of constitutional recognition of Mapuche land rights.
- Mapuche trials
In Temuco, capital of Araucanía, a trial of 11 local residents accused of setting fire to a homestead in early 2013 and killing an elderly couple, is still in progress (this is known as the Luchsinger Mackay case).