The Chilean government also reported two deaths and three injuries in two separate incidents on the road that links the towns of Tirúa and Cañete, in Arauca province, but did not identify the victims.
The Government said that in one of the events, after noon, a group of people blocked the road and attacked a police patrol with firearms when it approached the scene, which responded first with live weapons and then with live ammunition.
Mapuche leaders gave another version, affirming that the police opened fire on people who were protesting against the militarization of the area and that they tried to free two Mapuche detainees on the road when they were riding in a car that according to the police was stolen.
Regarding the second event, which occurred hours later in the same area, the head of the Biobío National Defense, Rear Admiral Jorge Parga, explained that Navy officials were “once again attacked with firearms from inside a property.”
He explained that before the attack, the troops “had to enter reacting to this aggression and proceeding to arrest two people: an adult 21 years old and a minor under 15 years old.”
In this regard, the constituent Adolfo Millabur said that all the delegates of native peoples of the Constituent Convention were “affected by the news” and was categorical in “repudiating the militarization of the announced area.”
He blamed the Government for the events and stated that “the outcome is what we know today and hold the current government, the Carabineros and the Chilean Navy responsible.”
Despite the official version, the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) of the city of Concepción, capital of Biobío, reported that only one Mapuche was killed and not two.
Carolina Chang of the NHRI claimed that one of the people who was injured was presumed dead.
Rodrigo Díaz, governor of the Biobío region, accused the Government of being “responsible” for what happened and asked for details.
President Sebastián Piñera decreed this month, and then extended for 15 days, the militarization in BioBio and the neighboring region of La Araucanía after a series of acts of violence.
Both regions are going through a historical conflict between the Mapuche people and the State over the ownership of land, which the indigenous people consider their own by ancestral right and which were handed over to private parties, mainly forestry companies and landowners.
In La Araucanía, meanwhile, a group of people burned seven machines today, including trucks and backhoes, of a construction company in a neighborhood of the town of Victoria, Malleco province, reported the newspaper La Tercera, which cited the local Prosecutor’s Office .
For years, attacks on properties and machinery have been registered in the area, often used as excuses by the police and the military to repress these groups, which already have several deaths, which led to prosecutions and convictions for some police.
Source From: Ambito
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