Chile decrees the remilitarization of the Mapuche region

The government of Chilean President Gabriel Boric on Monday (May 16th) ordered the return of the army to the region of La Araucanía, in the south of the country, in the face of rising violence linked to the territorial claims of the Mapuche Indians.

Interior Minister Izkia Siches said after announcing that the army would be redeployed to the south of the country.

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On October 12, 2021, soldiers had been moved to the Araucanía region and to towns in the neighboring Biobío region by order of the government of conservative Sebastián Piñera.

During the election campaign, Gabriel Boric pledged to withdraw the military from the region, a measure he implemented on March 27.

But after unsuccessfully trying to get Congress to approve an

deployment of the military, with a limited presence in a few places, and in the face of a notorious increase in arson, his government had to backtrack and resort to a once again to this emergency measure to protect the area.

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Minister Izkia Siches explained that alongside the new

decree , which allows the movement of military forces, the government will continue its policy of dialogue with Mapuche communities and a broader policy of purchasing lands.

Some communities in the south of the country have been demanding for decades the restitution of lands they consider to belong to them by virtue of ancestral rights, today mainly in the hands of forestry companies and farmers.

Radical indigenous groups have claimed responsibility for some of these attacks, although there are also reports in the area of ​​forest vigilante groups, groups dedicated to wood theft and ordinary crime.