Violence in La Araucanía reaches a newly elected constitutional councilor in Chile

Republican Party Councilman Hector Urban with an image of how his house was after the ataque.mauricio_ojedar (Twitter)

Violence has intensified in recent hours in the region of La Araucanía and surrounding areas, in southern Chile, and has reached Héctor Urban, a newly elected constitutional adviser of the Republican Party, of the extreme right. They first attacked with gunfire a truck belonging to his father, a farmer from the municipality of Ercilla. Then, on Tuesday night, they fired at the home of the counselor, one of the 51 who as of June 7 will draft a new proposal for a Constitution. Urban, who was elected with the first majority in the area, 13.8%, was with his wife and 13-year-old son in the living room of their home. The three threw themselves to the ground while the bullets, Urban said in a radio interview, broke even the armored windows of his home. Although it is not clear that the attacks are related to his recent election – "I do not want to believe that this is being linked to political attacks," said the councilor-elect – the government of Gabriel Boric announced special protection measures for both Urban and his family, who have been victims of some 400 attacks, as detailed.

In La Araucanía and nearby areas, radical Mapuche groups confront the Chilean state, a violent conflict is waged that has become more complex over time. To the attacks on ancestral lands, which began in 1997, have been added crimes such as timber theft and drug trafficking, which has put the State of the South American country on the ropes. The new wave of violence occurs, precisely, one year after the Boric Government decreed the first constitutional State of Exception, for the military to protect the area, despite the original project of the leftist Administration to contain the conflict with other methods. Recently, the Chilean Congress has approved a new extension, although Urban claims to have no relation either to this fact or to the transfer of Mapuche prisoners, detained for acts of violence. On Monday, a group of six detainees were transferred for security reasons from the Angol prison in La Araucanía to other prisons in other areas of the territory.

The counselor Urban was received in La Moneda by the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve: "It was a very violent day, in which they attacked many people, not only my father, me and my family," he said after the meeting. "We come to denounce it and ask that this State of Exception begins to work in a better way. The perception there, in La Araucanía, is that it is not being fulfilled. I am worried for my safety, that of my family and all the inhabitants of the entire region who are suffering daily these humiliations," added Urban, who called on the Government that those responsible for these "terrorist attacks" be found and arrested.

Monsalve met extraordinarily in La Moneda with the undersecretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Carabineros and the Investigative Police (PDI), to analyze the facts that the socialist described as "very serious." The Undersecretary of the Interior reported that some people were threatened with firearms and injured, as happened with a worker of the municipality of Victoria who was seriously injured in the foot and a truck driver, in addition to the attack on the Urban. "These are facts that the country cannot tolerate," Monsalve said. "Many do not explain that having a State of Exception acts of violence continue to occur, which shows again the complexity of the challenge that the Chilean State has to guarantee peace. There are organized groups that are not willing to respect either the institutions or the lives of the people and make use of firearms to attack and eventually murder," said the socialist.

The Government, through Monsalve, announced the review of the measures being taken in the area and strengthen them. The undersecretary of the Interior spoke of a "red alert" of risk, with which 50% of the military in the area will be deployed in control and inspection. Additionally, two new helicopters were moved, in addition to the one that was available, increasing the number of armored vehicles and the installation of a military base in the municipality of Curacautín.

Public insecurity in all its dimensions – the crime crisis in Santiago, organized crime in the north of the country, violence in La Araucanía – are strongly rejected by Chilean society, which demands greater intervention from the Government. The discourse of the Republican Party in these matters pushed its irruption as the first Chilean political force, after the election of the Constitutional Council, where the extreme right-wing force was left with 35% and with 23 seats in the constitutional body, almost half.