“Violence is predictably going to escalate, because there is nothing that has been done to suggest otherwise. Escalation factors, more means of violence, there are no major structural transformations, and they do not allow us to say that something is going to flatten the curve” .
Although he said he hopes that “structural transformations can start with the new Constitution,” in an interview with The countrythe former political and strategic coordinator for Indigenous Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, Salvador Millaleo, who presented his resignation from his position in the context of a string of acts of violence in the southern provinces, also predicted an escalation of violence in the south from the country.
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Consulted by the Spanish media about the decree of State of Exception in the area, Millaleo acknowledged that “the pressure has been very strong”, since “indeed there is an upsurge in violence”, but still -he added- “I have confidence in the president’s view that this remains a fundamentally political problem.
“And the Government is going to receive a very important second opportunity to channel its strategy after the approval of the new Constitution and its implementation. The crucial thing is to return to the political path,” added the resigned coordinator of Indigenous Affairs of the President’s administration. Gabriel Boric.
Millaleo pointed out that in any case, he does not consider that there are guerrillas in the area of conflict between the Chilean State and the Mapuche People. In his opinion, the situation “does not qualify for an internal armed conflict.” But what is problematic, he said, “is that the violence is increasing not only in number, but also in quality and intensity.”
“Because when a conflict like this of an ethnic-political nature is poorly managed, it begins to expand and enter dimensions that are more difficult to manage, with new factors of organized crime,” said Salvador Millalo, commenting that it would frighten him to think that the presence of the terrorism “was a self-fulfilling prophecy and that, if the State manages it even more badly, something stronger will appear some day”.
For Millaleo, “the political actors, not the convention, must establish a dialogue with the institutional leaders of the indigenous world and reach great agreements with them. It is a correct path, although not a path that will magically produce results by itself. “.
And regarding the dialogue with the violent groups, “we must be realistic: a dialogue with all the actors is not possible because they themselves have closed the door,” he said.
