More than a week has passed since the Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, referred to the Mapuche territory as “Wallmapu” at the Icare Meeting: Political Agenda 2022, and the fact continues to generate conflicts.
This, since certain Argentine authorities and former authorities questioned the use of the term and even asked the Casa Rosada to take action on the matter. This was requested by the former Minister of Security of the province of Chubut -one of the aforementioned provinces- Federico Massoni.
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“We demand that our national government be firm in its positioning and make it clear to Chileans that there is no Wallmapu, there is the province of Chubut,” he assured.
In this regard, Minister Siches offered the corresponding apologies, alluding that it was never her intention to interfere in neighboring territory.
“I want to be very clear, the term is focused on our national territory,” he said. “If I have caused discomfort at the international or trans-Andean level, I ask for all the corresponding excuses, it has never been in my interest,” she explained.
Words that the deputy of the Communist Party, Karol Cariola, did not like, who in conversation with T13branded Minister Siches’s apology as “absolutely unnecessary”, stating that there is an excess of sensitivity regarding the use of the term.
“I think it is evident that there is an excess of sensitivity regarding some issues on the part of some people. I say this on purpose because it causes so much annoyance to say ‘Wallmapu’ to La Araucanía and to all the land linked to the recovery of the territories of the Mapuche people, considering that this is the concept that the Mapuche people use. It seems to me that it is an exaggeration,” he stated.
“If the minister wanted to apologize for not generating more controversy on the point, she is within her right to do so. However, it seems to me that it was absolutely unnecessary to ask for this type of explanation or apology,” he added.
“It seems to me that the minister or any person in this country has every right to speak of ‘Wallmapu’, considering the conception that the Mapuche people themselves established in this regard,” he concluded.
