STATE STABILITY Hard landing The conflict in southern

Chile’s authorities have struggled to contain regular protests and attacks by the Mapuche minority and anarchist groups. Gideon Long examines the history of the community’s conflict over land rights, and the resulting legal and security issues.

uuKey points It ordered the state to annul the ver- His assessment met with little official dicts and pay the claimants approximately response. The government of then president • Conflict between the Chilean USD150,000 each in compensation, and Sebastián Piñera (2010–14) was in its final state and indigenous Mapuche demanded that Chilean courts in the future year in office and politicians of all parties were communities is continuing in southern should be more rigorous in their use of anony- preparing for the election campaign. Piñera’s regions, marked by recurrent land mous witnesses in anti-terrorism cases. predecessor as president from 2006–10, protests and arson attacks. That ruling followed a visit to the country , won the 2014 election and • Successive governments have failed in July 2013 by Ben Emmerson, the United Na- took office in March, vowing to tackle the to resolve the issues driving the tions special rapporteur on human rights and Mapuche issue anew. conflict, with spikes in violence during anti-terrorism. Emmerson, a British lawyer, However, in Araucanía and Biobío, little the austral summer set to continue was investigating the Mapuche conflict and appears to have changed, with the conflict and longer-term resolution uncertain. visited Araucanía and Biobío, the two south- continuing amid land protests and arson at- • There is some potential for overlap ern Chilean regions at the heart of the conflict. tacks. The ongoing instability has prompted a between Mapuche activism and Emmerson met representatives of national national debate about how Chile should deal anarchist causes, with low-level and local government, human rights organisa- with the Mapuche issue, raising questions violence and IED attacks likely to continue in the near future. tions, indigenous leaders, farmers, the police, about its use of anti-terrorism legislation, and lawyers before returning to to whether the legislation should be modified deliver a stern verdict. He described the situa- or even repealed, and how the transfer of ore than a century after they were tion in the two regions as “extremely volatile” ancestral lands could be improved or acceler- “pacified” by government troops and warned that “it could very quickly escalate ated. For Emmerson, the situation remains in M and their lands confiscated, Chile’s into widespread disorder and violence”. danger of escalating into a “full-blown regional largest ethnic minority – the Mapuche – are Moreover, he described the state’s transfer conflict”. still seeking a satisfactory settlement with of ancestral lands to Mapuche communities the state. In late July, Chile was criticised by – a key indigenous demand – as “inexcusably Simmering conflict the Inter-American Court of Human Rights slow”, and criticised the police for “systematic The Mapuche are by far the biggest indig- (IACHR), based in San José, Costa Rica, which use of excessive force” against the Mapuche. enous group in Chile, making up 82% of the delivered its verdict in the case of eight He said Chile’s anti-terrorism legislation had country’s indigenous population and 9% of Mapuche activists jailed between 2003 and been used against them “in a confused and the national population. More than 1.5 million 2005 under a controversial anti-terrorism law. arbitrary fashion that has resulted in real injus- Chileans regard themselves as Mapuche. The eight, who were sentenced to between tice” and that the legislation should no longer The inhabitants of pre-Hispanic Chile, the five and 10 years in prison, argued that the be used to deal with Mapuche land protests. Mapuche resisted colonisation for more than Chilean state was wrong to use the law “Senior members of the judiciary told me that two centuries. It was not until the 1880s that against them. The court upheld their claim, the current definition of terrorism in Chilean they were finally defeated in a military cam- saying Chile had violated the presumption law is effectively unworkable and that there paign euphemistically known as “the Pacifica- of innocence and the claimants’ freedom of is a strong case for repeal of the anti-terrorism tion of the Araucanía”, following which they expression. legislation,” he said. were forcibly settled in small, impoverished

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Activists start a fire during a protest in Santiago, Chile, on 3 January 2014, in memory of the death of Matias Catrileo, a young Mapuche Indian who died on 3 January 2008 after allegedly being shot by police during a land dispute in southern Chile. PA: 1535158

communities, and their lands were seized them unfairly: in 12 of the 19 cases in which 2013 that she will no longer use the anti-ter- and sold off to mostly European settlers, who the law was invoked between 2000 and 2013, rorism law against the Mapuche and admits its developed them for large-scale commercial the defendants were either Mapuche or were use was a mistake during her first government farming and logging. Ever since, the Mapuche involved in Mapuche land protests. (2006–10). She has also vowed to reform the have been waging a campaign to regain what It has also proved ineffective. According to law, without saying how. they regard as their ancestral lands, particu- the Citizens’ Observatory (Observatorio Ciu- While the public debate continues about larly since the late 1990s. dadano), a human rights non-governmental the anti-terrorism legislation, sporadic attacks The centre-left governments that ruled organisation based in Araucanía, 77 Mapuche are continuing in the south, particularly in Chile following the return to democracy were charged under the law between 2000 Araucanía, where the Mapuche make up 31% in 1990 were broadly sympathetic towards and 2012. Of those, nine were convicted of of the population. According to the Multi- the country’s indigenous people and made terrorist offences and 15 of common crimes, gremial de La Araucanía, a business associa- some headway in meeting their demands. while the rest were acquitted. tion that monitors the conflict, there were For example, the state started the process of Prosecutors such as Sabas Chahuán, the 106 violent incidents “with an indigenous land transfers during this period, and it also head of the state prosecution service, claim ­connotation” in Araucanía in the first six passed the Indigenous Law, the first piece of the law places too much emphasis on terror- months of 2014. ­legislation to recognise the rights of Chile’s ist intent and not enough on the definition These included incidents of arson, land ethnic minorities. of acts of terrorism. It defines a terrorist act seizures, threats against farmers, attacks However, when the conflict turned violent as one carried out “with the intention of on police, and IED attacks. The figure com- in the late 1990s, state prosecutors used producing in the population, or in part of it, a pares with 138 incidents in the same period Chile’s tough anti-terrorism law against well-founded fear of falling victim to the same of 2013, although there were just 53 incidents Mapuche defendants. Drafted in 1984 under type of crime”. in the first half of 2010 – the last time Chile the military dictatorship of General Augusto According to Chahuán, “It’s practically changed government. According to the Multi- Pinochet (1973–90), the law doubles the impossible for any prosecutor to prove that. gremial, the worst year for violence was 2012, sentences for certain offences, and allows the You’ve pretty much got to have the defendant with a total of 309 incidents, followed by 2013 prosecution to withhold evidence from the admit ‘yes, that was my intent’, and that’s and 2009. defence and to use anonymous witnesses. very difficult.” In neighbouring Biobío, where the Mapuche Those charged under the legislation lose Chahuán said the law should be modified to make up 8% of the population, there were 31 the right to vote until they are acquitted, and shift the focus away from intent and towards violent incidents in the first seven months of those convicted are barred from public office the objective details of an offence, such as the 2014, compared with 14 in the same period of for 15 years and stripped of their citizenship. extent of damage caused by an improvised 2013, according to the Multigremial. The law has been reformed on six occasions explosive device (IED) attack or the elements (in 1991, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2010, and 2011), used in making an IED. For better or worse? but still bears the hallmarks of dictatorship. Bachelet has repeatedly said since the start There is little consensus on whether the The Mapuche say it has been used against of her presidential election campaign in April Mapuche conflict is escalating or easing. In a ihs.com/janes October 2014 Jane’s Intelligence Review | 41 STATE STABILITY

Anarchist IED attacks helicopters used to combat forest fires. Other significant incidents include the at- Aside from the Mapuche conflict, the movement converged when a small device tempted murder of a state prosecutor in Tirúa other principal security challenge for exploded outside the home of a wealthy in 2008. Four Mapuche activists were jailed Chile is an ongoing series of IED attacks farmer in . A group named after for the crime, including Héctor Llaitul, leader in Santiago. There have been around Sebastián Oversluij claimed responsibil- of the Coordinara Arauco Malleco (CAM), a 200 in the past decade. Most of the IEDs ity for the attack. Oversluij was a young radical Mapuche group that is the closest that have been rudimentary devices made anarchist shot dead by the police during the Mapuche conflict has to an insurgent or from fire ­extinguishers and gunpowder, a raid on a bank in Santiago in December guerrilla organisation. and many have been timed to explode at 2013. It appeared that the bombers were Formed in 1998, the CAM has claimed night when the streets are largely empty. anarchists rather than Mapuche activists, responsibility for numerous arson attacks and However, there are signs that this ap- but in a pamphlet found at the scene the land seizures with the stated aim of “rebuild- proach is changing, with an IED detonating attackers paid homage to Matías Catrileo, ing the Mapuche nation”. However, the exact on 8 September at a food court inside a a young Mapuche man shot dead by the nature of the CAM – its structure, funding and busy metro station in Santiago. The attack police in 2008. Chilean police continue membership – remains a mystery. Conserva- appears to have been designed to cause to investigate possible links between the tive Chilean press reports have claimed that it casualties, with 14 people injured in the anarchist IEDs in the capital and radical is financed, trained, and armed by insurgents attack. Nonetheless, the only fatality to activism in Araucanía and Biobío. of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de date was a prospective bomber who died The state’s failure to halt the anarchist Colombia (FARC) in Colombia and the Basque in 2009 when the device he was carrying bombings is something of an embarrass- separatist organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna exploded prematurely. ment for the police and prosecutors, par- (ETA), but have provided little evidence to Multiple obscure anarchist groups have ticularly given the reputation of the Chilean support the claim. claimed responsibility for the attacks, security services as the most efficient in Economically, the Mapuche conflict has which have targeted banks, churches, Latin America. taken its toll in Araucanía. One agricultural embassies, police stations, army barracks, The Chilean authorities have arrested association based in the regional capital of courthouses, and government buildings. and charged more than a dozen suspects, Temuco, the Temuco Agricultural Develop- As with the Mapuche issue, prosecutors but most have been either acquitted or ment Society, estimates that arson attacks have attempted to use the anti-terrorist convicted only of minor offences. The have destroyed USD15.3 million of farming law against the alleged perpetrators, with only person jailed to date remains Hans machinery and buildings in the past 25 years, little success. Niemeyer, a Chilean sociologist serving a including 12 combine harvesters, 23 tractors, In the early hours of New Year’s Day five-year term for planting an IED in a bank 39 houses, and 31 warehouses. 2014, the Mapuche conflict and anarchist in 2011. The wider impact in terms of lost invest- ment, lost tourism, and higher insurance premiums is harder to quantify. Araucanía 20 August radio interview, Minister of the In- were registered in just three of the region’s 32 is traditionally one of the poorest regions terior Rodrigo Peñailillo claimed the number municipalities – Ercilla, Angol, and . in Chile, with a high unemployment rate of of violent incidents in the south had increased In Biobío, the violence was mostly limited 6.8% in 2013 and a low rate of investment. 77% under the Piñera government but was to Tirúa and Cañete – two of the region’s 42 According to government figures from 2010, now easing under Bachelet’s mandate. Piñera’s municipalities, according to the Multigremial measurements of GDP per capita, poverty, former advisers refuted the claim. de La Araucanía. and extreme poverty were all up to 20 years In fact, the Mapuche conflict ebbs and Moreover, fatalities are limited. In recent behind the Chilean national average, while be- flows. An incident occasionally triggers a spate decades, only a small number of people have tween 2004 and 2009, rates of foreign direct of attacks and recriminations but invariably died as a direct consequence of the conflict. investment in Araucanía were zero. the violence dissipates as rapidly as it surfaced. These include a young Mapuche activist, The austral summer months of January and Matías Catrileo, who was shot dead by the Steps towards resolution February, when Mapuche students return to police during a land protest in 2008, and an Successive Chilean governments have empha- the south from Santiago, and the pine and eu- elderly couple who were burned alive in an sised the need to respect Chile’s indigenous calyptus plantations of Araucanía and Biobío attack on their farm in 2013. peoples, to empower them, and meet their are often ravaged by forest fires – some started In 2012, seven firefighters died while tack- demands, but in practice little has changed, deliberately – tend to be particularly marked ling a blaze on a forestry plantation in Carahue and a comprehensive solution to the Mapuche by violence. Yet the area is far from being in Araucanía. The government claimed the conflict remains elusive. engulfed in violence. Araucanía and Biobío fire had been started deliberately and blamed Since the 1990s, land transfers have been a together cover nearly 70,000 square kilome- Mapuche activists, but that has not been key part of government policy. The state has tres, an area roughly the size of the Republic of proved. In May 2013, suspected Mapuche bought thousands of hectares and returned Ireland, and the worst of the conflict is limited activists derailed a cargo train near the town of them to Mapuche communities whose ances- to a few towns and villages. In Araucanía, Ercilla in northern Araucanía and shot at the tors once owned them. However, the process for example, more than three quarters of two train drivers as they tried to escape, and in is problematic and bureaucratic. the violent incidents in the first half of 2014 December 2013, activists opened fire on two First, when dealing with disputes dating

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from the nineteenth century, it is difficult to Mapuche unrest in Chile establish specific community ownership of Capital particular lands. Second, the state can only Town/city buy land if its current owners are willing to Hotspot for violent incidents sell, with many farmers claiming that their own ancestors bought the land in good faith Concepción and are now unwilling to vacate it. Third, there are questions over the use made Biobío of returned lands. Some Mapuche have no money to invest and land lies idle, while oth- Cañete Ercilla, Angol and Collipulli ers lease the land to make a living, sometimes to the same farmers who owned it in the first place. Critics claim that forestry companies exploit land to the maximum before it is trans- Tirúa ferred to the Mapuche, leaving little more than arid desert littered with the stumps of pine and eucalyptus trees. Carahue Piñera’s centre-right government tended to Temuco view the Mapuche conflict primarily as a secu- Araucanía rity issue and introduced practical measures to Santiago deal with it. For example, it installed security cameras along the stretch of the Pan-Amer- ican highway that runs through Araucanía, where Mapuche activists have ambushed trucks owned by forestry companies. It also bolstered the police presence in the area. At CHILE the same time, Piñera also introduced some measures designed to speed up land transfers 0 80 km to indigenous communities. © 2014 IHS: 1535892 The Bachelet government claims a more holistic approach is needed. “It’s not a judicial verdict might have repercussions outside stemming from the Mapuche conflict un- or a policing problem, it’s a political problem,” Chile, encouraging other indigenous people – less the state addresses issues ranging from Peñailillo said in his 20 August radio interview. notably in Ecuador and Guatemala – to go to policing in Araucanía and Biobío to the use Consequently, the government intends to court in a bid to have their verdicts annulled. of Mapuche in hospitals establish a ministry of indigenous affairs and “There are parallels with the Chilean case in and the teaching of the has scheduled meetings with all of Chile’s several countries, so we could see other cases (Mapudungun) in schools. As Emmerson said indigenous communities to ask them what elsewhere in the region,” she told IHS Jane’s. following his visit in 2013, “the search for a they want from the state. solution will require … a paradigm shift in However, arguably the most significant step Outlook political will. No government of either politi- Bachelet has taken was the appointment in Over the short term, anarchist IED attacks are cal hue has treated this issue with the priority February of Francisco Huenchumilla as her likely to continue in Chile, with indications­ it deserves”. chief government representative in Araucanía. that these will escalate in intensity. Police will The son of a Mapuche father and a Hispanic need to make breakthroughs in investigations This article was first published online at mother, he is the first Mapuche to hold the po- and prosecutors will need to secure convic- ihs.com/janes on 9 September 2014. sition. On his first day in office, Huenchumilla tions if the attacks are to be eradicated. made an impassioned apology to the Mapuche However, the Mapuche conflict has a dif- uuOn the web for the state’s usurpation of their lands. ferent dynamic. It is a complex, deep-rooted Mapuche leaders received it warmly. “His dispute that will not be resolved rapidly or • Latin lessons – Counter-terrorism appointment is a very important step,” Jimena easily, and in the short term, the next major legislation in South America Reyes, head of the Latin American office of challenge for security forces will be the austral • José Miguel Insulza – Secretary- the International Federation of Human Rights summer, when the inevitable forest fires are General of the Organization of (FIDH), a Paris-based non-governmental likely to rekindle the conflict. The Bachelet American States organisation, told IHS Jane’s on 31 August. government will want to avoid a repeat of Reyes acted as legal counsel to some of the the spike in violence that has repeatedly oc- Author Mapuche who took Chile to the IACHR and curred between December and February Gideon Long is a journalist based in Santiago. claimed that Bachelet has already adopted a in recent years. more conciliatory tone towards the Mapuche Over the longer term, there is unlikely to ihs.com/janes than Piñera. She also suggested the IACHR be an improvement in the security situation­ ihs.com/janes October 2014 Jane’s Intelligence Review | 43