Originally published by Internationalist 360.
By Mikhael Marzuqa
On October 12, the president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, declared a state of emergency in four provinces located in the so-called “southern macro zone” of Chile, as he indicated by “serious disturbance of public order.”
The announcement comes amid an escalation of violence in the “red zone” of the territory claimed by the ancestral Mapuche indigenous people, between the Biobío and La Araucanía regions, located about 600 kilometers south of the capital Santiago.
Arson attacks, armed attacks, and the death of both Mapuches and Chilean farmers and policemen, committed by hooded men are some of the serious events that have characterized the latest events.
Under a state of emergency, now the security management in the area will be in charge of the Armed Forces for an additional extendable 15 days. In this regard, the National Institute of Human Rights has declared that it is a failure of the State and of society, as a whole, that murders and other acts of violence are discussed and that the guilty cannot be investigated, tried or convicted, in a sign of questioning the decision of the government.
With this measure, in practice, there is fear of an escalation of the repression against the Mapuche people and their long-awaited claims for their ancestral land, their recognition as a people-nation, and their political autonomy under a plurinational state regime as required of the authorities.
The measure has generated a strong controversy in Chile, especially when the process of formulating a new constitution is in full swing by 155 members of a Constituent Convention democratically elected by the citizens. A new constitution that will seek a new institutional order that corrects social inequalities, ends the system of forced savings through private insurers called AFP, which ensures investment capital at very low cost for the large Chilean and foreign economic groups that control this industry, reduce the concentration of wealth and ensure for everyone access to decent health, free and quality education, housing, and a public system of decent old-age pensions.
Elisa Loncón, the president of the Constitutional Convention, of Mapuche origin, the most numerous indigenous peoples, recently said:
“what the citizenship here needs are political solutions, to carry out economic processes that make it possible to overcome the poverty that affects the communities.”
“The serious acts of violence linked to drug trafficking, terrorism and organized crime committed by armed groups in the four provinces declared in a state of emergency are publicly known, which led the Mapuche leader Aucan Huilcamán to affirm that this state of exception. It will lead us to a dead-end because neither the military nor the police in any part of the world has established peace”.
See the complete post at almayadeen.net.
Author: Internationalist 360
Internationalist 360 provides a forum for authors to publish posts regarding current events in nations around the world, especially in South American, Middle Eastern and African nations.
