The incident occurred in the community of Ercilla600 kilometers south of the Chilean capital, where Siches intended to evaluate “what the de-escalation of the state of emergency” in the area, established during the government of Sebastián Piñera from several attacks committed by alleged Mapuche separatists.
Different media reported more than 50 bullets in the air and barricades in the area, which forced Carabineros personnel to evacuate the minister when he was on his way to the Mapuche community of Temucuicui to meet with Marcelo Catrillanca, father of Camilo, who was killed by the police force in November 2018.
Siches was evacuated and placed under shelter in a police station in the area, where Marcelo Catrillanca arrived.
“I want to greet the minister, because I think there are good intentions from the government and we value that,” he said, according to the Chilean press.
“Whatever happened along the way, we must resolve within the community; therefore, it is something we have to talk about, but I cannot tell you what happened, because in the end I have no idea what happened,” he admitted.
The Mapuche representative criticized in any case that the visit was very improvised and there was no time for the indigenous community itself to debate its opinion on the initiative of the new government of Gabriel Boric.
According to media present in the area, the minister left the police station with Catrillanca to finally hold the meeting in a place to be defined.
At the press conference from La Moneda, Vallejo clarified that the president is in “fluid dialogue” with Minister Siches, who will maintain her itinerary, since they want to take advantage of this trip so that, from the territory, they can “continue drawing this path ahead of dialogue and peace”.
Despite the facts, thedecision remains firm, we are not going to maintain the state of exception, because we want to open a space for dialogue to achieve peace”, remarked the spokeswoman.
Mapuche communities, the largest ethnic group in Chile, demand land that they consider their own by ancestral right and has been handed over to private parties, mainly to forestry companies and landowners. Arson attacks are frequent in the area, attributed to radical Mapuche groups and other organizations defending the forestry.
Violence has escalated in the region in the last decade, with arson attacks on private land and forest machinery. The confrontations also brought to light the presence of drug traffickers and self-defense organizations, as well as police operations denounced as setups by the indigenous people.
Source: Ambito
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