Piñera will give ‘top priority and urgency' to indigenous socio-economic development.
President Sebastián Piñera said Monday that he would give “top priority and urgency” to the constitutional recognition of Chile’s indigenous Mapuche people.
President Sebastián Piñera said Monday that he would give “top priority and urgency” to the constitutional recognition of Chile’s indigenous Mapuche people.
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The announcement comes one week after a Mapuche leader called for Piñera to apologize for “oppression” by the Chilean state at a summit in the Araucanía Region, where tensions between Mapuches and government authorities had been escalating.
“I have decided to put the highest priority and urgency to the constitutional recognition of our indigenous people,” Piñera said, adding that he planned to create a council for indigenous peoples that is “truly representative of the community’s history, tradition and culture”.
Piñera said that the council’s purpose seeks to recognize the “inexcusable delay” in economic and social development for the indigenous community.“I have decided to put the highest priority and urgency to the constitutional recognition of our indigenous people,” Piñera said, adding that he planned to create a council for indigenous peoples that is “truly representative of the community’s history, tradition and culture”.
Piñera concluded by stating that necessary amendments to the Chilean constitution would “allow us to pay a historic debt we have with our indigenous peoples.”
Mapuche chief of the Lautaro area, lonko Juan Carlos Huenchullán, said he remains dubious of the announcement, labelling it little more than a campaign promise in face of increasing violence.
“I’ll accept it when we have the document,” he told Cooperativa. “If there were no problems in (the area), I believe that the president would be still sleeping.”
Fatal arson attacks have been the latest tragedies in the conflict-stricken Araucanía Region, which is home to Chile’s largest Mapuche population. Though the latest arson attacks have not been definitively linked to Mapuches, critics of the Piñera administration say they will be most affected by the response, which will involve increased police deployment and the formation of an anti-terrorism group in the region.
By Lucy Hughes Jones (hjones@santiagotimes.cl)
Copyright 2013 – The Santiago Times
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