Difficult Times for Chile’s Easter Island
Famous for its monolithic Moai head stones that were mysteriously erected at the dawn of history, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Easter Island is today making headlines of a different sort. The pristine and storied image used to market Easter Island as a tourist mecca began to unravel as unrest surfaced there last August, when the native islanders confronted Santiago’s representatives of Chilean state (who annexed the island in 1888) in the latest bid for self-rule. While the issue is not on the agenda for President Obama’s March 21 trip to the Chilean capital, many feel that it should be.
Since August 2010, the Rapa Nui islanders have been carrying out demonstrations at various important tourist sites on the island that they claim as their ancestral lands. At the Hotel Hanga Roa, the site of a USD 50 million redevelopment project supported by Chile’s Piñera government, the Hito family—a powerful Rapa Nui clan—had been staging a six-month long “sit-in” protest. Across the Americas and beyond, onlookers have witnessed comparable struggles as indigenous groups have fought private corporations and contemptuous governments in their battle for the restoration of their land and sovereignty. Unfortunately, all too often these attempts have ended in bloody brawls and, on occasion, the loss of innocent life.
This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associates Joss Douglas and Samantha Nadler
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