President Gabriel Boric assured that he will put all his leadership and “political capital so that we move towards peace” in La Araucanía, a region that has been affected by repeated acts of violence. In order to achieve this, during his visit to the area, announced the creation of the Commission for Peace and Understanding.
Said commission, as he has said, “will register the demand for Mapuche lands and propose deadlines, restitution and reparation mechanisms, and amounts.” According to members of the cabinet, the objective is to settle and repair the debt of the Chilean State with the Mapuche people.
Visit to La Araucanía in October 2021 during the presidential campaign. Photo: Fernando Ramirez.
So far, the commission’s guidelines are unclear. But there are some advances, such as the one said by the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, who pointed out in 24 hours that “we are not yet in the details, we are laying the foundations”. Along these lines, he asserted that they will try to ensure that “there is a legal obligation, independent of the government, to meet certain goals” and that “we are going to get closer to a law that obliges the State rather than the will of the government in power.” .
What is clear is who will be in charge. Last Friday, from the south, the President indicated that it will be the psychologist Víctor Ramos (CS) —currently in charge of the “Good Living” plan— and the minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), Ana Lya Uriarte (PS) , who will take charge of leading the instance.
Regarding the deadlines, he pointed out that the design is for the commission to begin operating in March of next year and that its results be delivered before January 2025, the month in which 200 years of the Trapihue parliament are commemorated – a meeting between the representatives of the Mapuche people and the Republic of Chile to agree on the statute that would govern relations between the two.
Since June, Ramos, together with a team, has been holding dialogues with Mapuche communities in the Biobío region, La Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos —according to the person in charge, Uriarte, they have held 165 meetings—. This to satisfy two points of the Good Living Plan: identify interlocutors for the creation of parliaments that recognize the indigenous authorities and the actors of the territory with the objective of responding to the territorial and political demands, and investment in the area.
Regarding the profile of the members, the President pointed out that “the idea is that it be totally transversal and that it be validated by all sectors.” “Authorities are going to participate, people who have had experience in this, people from the Mapuche communities, it has to be something that guarantees everyone,” he pointed out.
That same day, Minister Uriarte explained that the commission will be made up of “people who have specific knowledge about history and knowledge from an anthropological point of view, as well as people who have the experiences of what our relationship as a State has been with the Mapuche people. “.
The delimitations of the minister Ana Lya Uriarte
On Sunday Ana Lya Uriarte (PS) consulted by Third On whether groups that have participated in acts of violence will be part of the commission, he assured that “its members should not be questioned.”
He added that “we are going to dialogue, of course, with the Mapuche people, but with that Mapuche people who want to dialogue with us, first of all, and secondly, who want peace.”
He described that the formation must provide “guarantees to both the Chilean State and the Mapuche people. And from that point of view, the formation has to be with people who are close to the conflict itself or who have a certain expertise that facilitates the analysis of the circumstances and that allows answering the question what, how and when”.
The cadastre would include all the land
Regarding the land registry, on Friday in La Araucanía the President stated that “he must consider the loss that the communities have suffered regarding the titles that the State has given them and also the lively demand that exists for the so-called ancient lands that may be technically supported.
“This is an issue that as a State we have never known how to address, and until we do so, it will not be possible to comply with the obligations that the State has at the international level or lay the foundations for a solution to the conflict,” he added.
Francisco Arellano, who is part of Víctor Ramos’ team at La Moneda, wrote a tweet explaining what the President was referring to when he spoke of including “ancient lands” in the cadastre. “LThe military conquest of the Mapuche territory (also known as the ‘Pacification of the Araucanía’) included a process in which the State reduced the Mapuche communities to certain territories and gave them titles for them (merced titles and others),” he said. .
Until today, he said, the State had only recognized the communities’ right to reparation based on the loss they had suffered of the grant titles, “but never on the lands they lost due to military conquest. Those are the ‘ancient lands’”.
According to sources in La Moneda, a community present that is currently making the request for the land will be needed, and an agreement to establish what the parameters will be to delimit it.
Today, President Boric has proposed to register the entire land demand of the Mapuche people, and has indicated that this register must include the “ancient lands.” What does this refer to? I open thread 1/6 https://t.co/yPVedeKKQo
– Francisco Arellano R (@FcoArellano) November 11, 2022
In addition, he wrote that “an important part of the security problem in the south cannot be resolved through dialogue, that is what the president said. Seeking agreements makes it possible to bring together those who want solutions and isolate those whose center is the theft of wood (who have ended up being mostly non-Mapuche)”.
