Radical Mapuches defy president-elect in Chile

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Mapuche Lavkenche Resistance (RML) claimed responsibility for the arson attack that destroyed 31 properties on the shores of Lake Lanalhue, in the Chilean region of Bío Bío, while warning that “it will not stop with either (Sebastián) Piñera or (Gabriel) Boric”, in reference to the recently elected new tenant of La Moneda.

In a statement, the armed movement – created in 2020 – indicated that the attack is a retaliation for the sentencing of eight members of the Mapuche community of Valle Elicura (scheduled for tomorrow), convicted for the murder of a man in 2019.

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“Faced with this legal and media farce is that we rise up, (…). Because if there is no Winka justice, there will always be Mapuche justice,” they threatened.

“They speak of a rampage of crime, but they avoid the bottom line that will condemn our peñi to dozens of years in prison”, lamented the movement in the letter, to indicate that “those who in the face of our actions try to show themselves as victims are the same who have justified the territorial dispossession by creating a false truth, believing themselves to be the owners of a history that does not belong to them”.

In this context, they announced that they would not cease their activities “as long as the forestry companies and companies continue to devastate the territory”. “The weichan (the struggle) will not stop. Neither with Piñera nor with Boric”. Along with Wednesday’s attack, the RML has also taken advantage of the writing disseminated this Wednesday to claim authorship of several other attacks since November, reports Radio Bío Bío.

The southern region of Chile, where the largest Mapuche population is concentrated, the largest indigenous group in the Latin American country, has been the scene of increasing violence, with clashes between security forces and citizens who hold historical territorial claims.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, a group of hooded men led the burning of 31 buildings in the vicinity of Lake Lanalhue, an act that the authorities pointed out as an act of violent groups that attack and threaten innocent people.

Given the security crisis, the Chilean Senate approved the extension of the state of emergency until January 10 in four provinces with an incidence of violence.