Maduro says that the Mapuche people are "repressed, tortured and martyred" in Chile

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro expressed his solidarity on Wednesday with the Mapuche people, who he said are “so repressed, so tortured and so martyred” in Chile, two days after a demonstration in Santiago that ended in clashes with the police and 10 detainees. .

Greetings to the Mapuche people, so repressed, so tortured and so martyred in Chile of today!” Maduro exclaimed in an act for the “Day of indigenous resistance”, as the holiday of October 12 was baptized in Venezuela.

The president made no direct reference to the October 10 demonstration in Santiago, in which they protested the militarization of southern regions of Chile where radical indigenous groups vindicate demands of the Mapuche.

The march clashed on several occasions with the police, who dispersed them with water cannons and tear gas. Ten protesters were arrested.

The Mapuches are the main Chilean ethnic group. Some communities settled in the south of the country demand land restitution that they consider theirs by ancestral rights, today in the hands mostly of forestry companies and farmers.

Chile’s leftist president, Gabriel Boric, reversed an order he gave in March, when he took office, to demilitarize the zone.

In April, he ordered a deployment of troops to support the police in the protection of routes where there are frequent attacks on trucks or private properties.

Ripewhich celebrated Boric’s victory as “a resounding victory over fascism”, does not have a close relationship with the left in power in Chile. Indeed, when the new constitutional proposal was rejected in a referendum in September, he said “firm leadership was lacking.”

Other Chavista leaders have also criticized the Boric government.