The Mapuche Struggle for Autonomy

Mapuches fight for Land Rights

On August 17, dozens of Mapuche communities in southern Chile united to form the Mapuche Territorial Alliance to continue their struggle for political autonomy. Many of them had carried on angry protests, most recently on August 12, when a police operation to evict the Mapuches who had seized land left one dead and eight injured. Mapuche demonstrators sought to regain their ancestral lands by any means possible and their simmering discontent had finally boiled over, yet Mapuche demands continue to be ignored and negotiations remain at a standstill.

The indigenous people of Chile were demonstrating that their community was no longer willing to remain silent after decades of being disregarded, exploited, and forcibly removed from their lands. However, although authorities were taken by surprise by the growing stream of violent reactions against the polic e and logging corporations, they have shown no signs of allowing the Mapuches to return to their land nor have they offered them any reparations for human rights violations during the Pinochet regime. Instead of reaching out and seeking a solution, the government criminalized these actions.

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