CHILE: FOUR COPS INJURED IN SHOWDOWN WITH MAPUCHES

Mapuches Occupy Region IX Farm; Demand Meeting With Vierra-Gallo

Heightened tensions between police and Mapuche activists in Region IX resulted in yet another violent confrontation Friday. The skirmish left four Carabineros (uniformed police) injured, according to news reports.

Early that morning a group of some 70 Mapuches occupied a ranch near Ercilla known as “La Romana.” The land is owned by a wealthy farmer named René Urban. The activists erected a shack on the property and demanded an audience with José Antonio Vierra-Gallo, President Michelle Bachelet’s top Congressional liaison. Earlier this week Bachelet named Vierra-Gallo as her new indigenous policy coordinator, and his arrival in the region has been met by demands and reprobations.
 
The government minister faces the difficult challenge of taming antagonisms between the state and the Mapuche, Chile’s largest indigenous group. Age-old tensions have flared in recent weeks following the police shooting for a 24-year-old Mapuche activist. Jaime Facundo Mendoza Collío died Aug. 12 from a bullet wound to the back.
 
Friday afternoon Carabineros moved onto “La Romana” with orders to remove the Mapuche squatters. According to news reports, Mapuches fired on the Carabineros, injuring four. Police say one of their officers, Claudo Meneses, received a buckshot wound near his eye.
 
René Urban reportedly owns four area properties, which have together been attacked dozens of times. In addition to land seizures, Urban’s properties have also suffered arson attacks and theft.
 
Among Viera-Gallo's first meetings in Region IX was a tense encounter Friday afternoon with young Mapuche at an indigenous boarding school in Temuco. According to reports by the newspaper La Tercera, the youth began by criticizing the government for unmet promises of more housing.
 
When Viera-Gallo abruptly stood up from the table to leave, students tried to block his exit and hurled insults at him as he made his way to his vehicle. A priest working with the students demanded an apology from Viera-Gallo for his tone and his decision to break off the meeting.
 
With Chile’s next presidential election now less than four months away, the worsening “Mapuche Conflict,” as it is dubbed by the Chilean media, has been the subject of much political debate.
 
On a campaign stop in Region IX Thursday, dark horse candidate Marco Enriquez-Ominami blasted Bachelet’s decision to designate Vierra-Gallo as her new indigenous tsar, calling the government minister “conservative” and “intellectually cowardly and lazy.” Bachelet’s top spokesperson, Carolina Tohá, responded by calling Enriquez-Ominami’s statements “shocking.”
 
Enriquez-Ominami, the big surprise in this year’s presidential race, is a 36-year-old Congressmen who’s currently running a close third behind frontrunner Sebastian Piñera, a wealthy conservative businessman, and Sen. Eduardo Frei, a former president who represents the governing center-left Concertación coalition.
 
Region IX, also known as the Araucanía, is home to more than 30 percent of Chile’s approximately 800,000 Mapuches. It has also been the focal point for efforts by impoverished Mapuche communities to recover ancestral lands that have long been in private hands.

By Patagonia Times Staff