Author: Judy Wooley
Co-authors: Samantha Flax, Alannah Giannino, Jonathan Idrovo
After three decades of land disputes with the Chilean government, the Mapuche may have finally been heard regarding the return of their ancestral lands, which were taken from them during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. After exhausting all other means of being heard, they resorted to violent protests and were portrayed as “terrorists” by members of the government.
Rodrigo Abd / AP
Sandra Millacheo, 18, center, and her sister Elsa Millacheo, 22, are released by a judge after being arrested during confrontations with police and held for one day in Collipulli, Chile, on Feb. 13, 2013. The women were arrested along with 17 others after clashing with police outside a court where Fernando Millacheo, a member of the Mapuche indigenous community, was to appear for a hearing on robbery, arson and attempted murder charges.
Most of the land disputes of the Mapuche trace back to the late nineteenth century and the Occupation of Araucanía, when Chilean territory expanded after defeating Bolivia and Peru in a civil war. Mapuche people were forced off of their land and placed into smaller settlements, while colonialists’ descendants took the land and used it for agriculture. Nearly a century later, Salvador Allende began to make reparations efforts, by legitimizing the culture, granting landholding rights, and creating The Institute for Indigenous Development. Unfortunately, upon the coup in 1973, all efforts were reversed under Pinochet. Indigenous activists and leaders were ordered to be executed, landholding policies were liberalized by detransitioning from collective to individual landownership. Pinochet operated under the assumption that forcing the indigenous population to assimilate would bring them out of the poverty they had been dragged into so many years earlier. In the years after, when the Concertación came to power, emboldened activist groups hoped to get land back and gain more autonomy. The leadership gave them false hope.
Mapuche activists try to get through riot police in a demonstration in Santiago, Chile Aug. 27, 2015 after truckers from the south arrived in the city. Photo: Reuters
The actions taken by activists range in general protests and hunger strikes, as well as arson (burning farmland belonging to white Chileans who resettled on the Mapuche’s land, as well as religious buildings and Catholic Churches which they associate with colonialism), intercepting lumber trucks, and in extreme cases, murder. In the last decade, many of the Mapuche’s actions have centered on reclaiming stolen land, and casualties are viewed as an unintended byproduct, comparable to the many deaths their ancestors suffered during the Chilean territory’s expansion in the nineteenth century. Writes Nick Miroff: “Some Mapuche activists insist their campaign’s goal is to reclaim land from big timber companies and commercial farms — not the humble small farmers who also came to populate the region over the years. But Victor Queipul, the lonko, or community leader, of Temucuicui, outside Ercilla, said the distinction did not matter”. Forced to learn spanish and not allowed to wear his hair in the Mapuche way, Queipul is part of the activists that want white citizens to leave their ancestral land and don’t identify as Chilean.
“We are not terrorists” “Justice and Liberty for the Mapuche political prisoners” , in a response to the application of the controversial anti-terrorism law to the conflict. Photo via Mapuexpress
Numbering 1.5 million, the indigenous make up one tenth of the Chilean population who live in the fertile Bio Bio and Araucania southern regions of the country. The land is currently owned by non-indigenous farmers, who are unwilling to sell disputed lands. The next steps remain to be seen as president Michelle Bachelet prepares to announce a new plan for dealing with the situation. She is basing her decision on a forty-five page report with proposals ranging from giving the Mapuche more congressional seats (as of now, they only have two), to having a reparations commission. While Bachelet claims there is more understanding than confrontation, there are still many disputes. For example, the lumber industry, located in the fertile southern regions, is flourishing on the indigenous land. Undoubtedly, the wild fires that recently ravaged this area will exacerbate the conflict. The indigenous people, who are living in poverty, do not want to resort to violent acts, but they felt they had no choice. They say they do not want to hurt anyone, but despite this there have been 227 acts of violence in 2016. Some indigenous people want all of the land to be returned to them so they can create an independent nation called Wallmapu. What will happen remains to be seen but it is clear that the conflict will continue to escalate without a satisfactory solution. This is yet another demonstration of negative factors from the Pinochet regime lasting into the Chilean government today.
Summary Factoid Questions:
What are the Mapuche people protesting?
The Mapuche people are protesting latent effects of colonialism on their indigenous lands, which were exacerbated under Pinochet.
Who attempted to begin reparations to the Mapuche people?
Allende began an attempt at reparations prior to the coup.
Sources:
Miroff, Nick. (2014, June 8) Land-reclamation campaign by indigenous Mapuches scorches southern Chile. The Washington Post. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/land-reclamation-campaign-by-indigenous-mapuches-scorches-southern-chile/2014/06/08/264f17dc-ccdb-4ec0-a815-a80360b6f02a_story.html)
Muñoz, Luis Campos. Chile’s Mapuche: Not Yet “Pacified”. NACLA. (https://nacla.org/article/chiles-mapuche-not-yet-pacified)
Radwin, Max. (2017, March 5). Chile aims to end decades of violent land disputes with the Mapuche people. USA Today. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/05/chile-aims-end-decades-violent-land-disputes-mapuche-people/97696674/)