Government analyzes extending military deployment in Chile’s south after new arson attack by Mapuches

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Following the latest violence in Carahue, a town located in the so-called red zone of violence in Chile, in the southern Araucanía region, officials of the Chilean Ministry of the Interior announced that this week they would evaluate the extension of the State of Constitutional Exception that has been in effect since October 12.

Minister Rodrigo Delgado stated that the new arson attack, which destroyed at least ten houses, a warehouse and five trucks and two vans, “only ratifies the reason for our decision at the time to request a State of Constitutional Exception.”

Delgado affirmed that the basic problem in the South region “has to do with people who many times choose the violent way to demonstrate, to impose their ideas or to vindicate social causes,” confirming that this week they are evaluating “the eventual second 15 days of the State of Exception”.

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The Minister of the Interior indicated that it is wrong to think that the problem in the South Macro zone can be solved only with protection. According to the authority, this “is not the definitive solution, the solutions are multi-causal, the problem is also very complex. Therefore, today, many more people feel protected and safe, but it does not solve the underlying problem.”

The action took place Monday afternoon, when a group of about 30 hooded men, armed, entered a property belonging to Forestal Casa Blanca in the Villa las Araucarias sector, some 40 kilometers from Carahue, and proceeded to burn prefabricated houses and trucks parked on the site.

In their flight, the group came across a truck belonging to the Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) of Imperial, in which two officials were being transported. They were detained, intimidated, and forced to hand over the public vehicle.

A banner was found on the property demanding the release of Mapuche community members and the departure of the military and capitalist companies. It was also confirmed that the access road to the Forestal Casa Blanca property was blocked by the hooded men to hinder the arrival of police personnel.

After the attack, the Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered the Investigative Police (PDI) to take steps to gather information on this attack, which was claimed by the Weichan Auka Mapu group. There are still no detainees in the investigation of this attack.

Regarding this incident, the Undersecretary of the Interior, Juan Francisco Galli, commented that “Carahue has unfortunately been one of the communities that have experienced the most violence and generally the death of Pablo Marchant is used as an excuse to commit this type of violent attack. We must remember that Pablo Marchant was the author of an arson attack in which a forestry worker was wounded in the back.”

Marchant, 29 years old, was a Mapuche community member of the Arauco Malleco Coordination (CAM) who died in July of this year in the middle of a confrontation with police officers at Forestal Mininco’s Santa Ana farm, located in the heart of La Araucanía.

Galli ratified that “we will continue to make every effort necessary, firstly, to avoid these acts of violence, but secondly, if they do occur, to find those responsible and bring them to justice.”

The State of Exception imposed in the Southern Macro-zone was announced on October 12 by President Piñera and applied to the provinces of Arauco and Bio Bío, in the Bio Bío Region, as well as Malleco and Cautín in the Araucanía Region, where control of public security has passed into the hands of the Armed Forces. On occasion, the President clarified that the role of the uniformed forces would be to collaborate but not to replace the Carabineros and the PDI.

The Chilean Constitution states that the state of emergency is decreed in “case of serious alteration of the public order or serious damage to the security of the Nation” and may be extended for another 15 days by the President of the Republic. For successive extensions, the President must seek the approval of Congress.