Live
Audio Only
On Monday, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet received what she called a “historic document” that will help implement a series of measures to hopefully quell the violence in the province of La Araucania, Mapuche ancestral territory in the country’s central region.
RELATED:
Indigenous Groups Demand Freedom of Mapuche Leader in Chile
The report, prepared by the Presidential Advisory Commission, contains testimony and information from 20 members of the Mapuche people, the church, authorities and the private sector. The commission worked for six months collecting information to collect the information and drafted more than 50 proposals on how to promote dialogue in the region, Prensa Latina reported.
"This desire for dialogue and reaching concrete agreements is a historical fact," Bachelet said, as quoted by Prensa Latina. “Dialogue is the best tool to face our challenge and overcome long-accumulated tensions."
The president suggested announcements on how to achieve the short, medium and long-term goals outlined in the document will start to be rolled out in March.
Mapuche communities living in La Araucania have been demonstrating against private company drivers and the government for years, pleading for urgent measures to recover their ancestral lands now in the hands of private corporations. This has provoked violent land conflicts between the Mapuche people and private workers.
RELATED:
Chile: Mapuche People to Declare 'Self Determination'
The state has responded with military repression and by invoking Pinochet-era anti-terrorism legislation, which the community has fiercely denounced.
The Mapuche people in Patagonia are the largest Indigenous population in South America and make up an estimated 10 percent of Chile's population. They have been involved in a continued struggle to defend their native land and traditional way of life despite many of their leaders being imprisoned.
Chile’s president hopes to bring the new Araucania Law to Congress by June, according to Prensa Latina.
Newsletter
