“No decision is easy. This statute of emergency constitutional exception is to better face, with better instruments and tools, the terrorism, the drug trafficking and organized crime that has taken root in those territories, “said Piñera.
The president – the subject of a constitutional action against him by Congress due to the use of tax havens for the sale of a company – assured that the measure “in no case is directed against a people or a group of citizens.”
The militarization of that southern region of Chile will last 15 days, extendable for another 15, explained the right-wing government.
“According to this decree, the Armed Forces will be able to provide logistical, technological and communications support. They will also be able to provide surveillance, patrol and transport support to police procedures that are developed in areas declared in a state of emergency,” explained Piñera .
The president alleged that the violence in those regions, for which he holds Mapuche groups responsible, “not only claimed the lives of police but also innocents” and recalled attacks on churches and private properties in southern Chile.
The Mapuche leaders, the largest Chilean ethnic group with more than 1.7 million among the 19 million Chileans, demand the restitution from land ancestral, which are in the hands of foresters and ranchers.
The lack of a solution to their claims caused an escalation of violence in the last decade in Chile, with arson attacks on private properties and trucks.
The presence of drug trafficking networks and drug trafficking organizations also came to light. self defense, as well as police operations allegedly mounted to incriminate the indigenous people.
On Sunday, clashes between the police and protesters during a march in Santiago in favor of the Mapuche people caused the death of the lawyer Denisse Cuts, 43 years old.
A majority of the Mapuches live in poverty and have seen their lands reduced due to the expansion of the prosperous timber industry, responsible for 8% of exports. Chile sells 7% of the paper pulp in the world.
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