Chile’s armed forces resumed patrolling the south of the country after the government of Gabriel Boric decreed a state of exception in two provinces of the Biobío region and in the entire region of La Araucanía. Secretary of State, Izkia Sichesdefended the measure and assured that the government maintains its long-term agenda that includes the restitution of lands to indigenous peoples, as well as the fight against crime and drug trafficking in areas where the administration reported an increase in violence.
Militarization of the Chilean South
The State of Exception entered into force this Wednesday in the southern macrozone of Chile. According to the decree signed two days beforethe government assures that there was an increase in violent acts on routes “extended road closures that put free transit at riskwhich disrupt public order and hamper supply chains, increasing the cost of living in the most backward areas.
The measure is valid for 15 years and then Boric will be able to extend it for a similar period without the need to consult the Chilean Congress. Before making the decision, the president had tried to approve an intermediate state of emergency to deploy the military only in some places, although finally opted to extend the measures to the provinces of Biobío and Arauco in the Biobío region, and to the entire region of La Araucanía.
In this sense, the Chilean armed forces will be able to support the police in vehicle controls on the roads interrupted by the Mapuche protests demanding land restitution in the south of the country and where they denounce that routes were opened and several forestry companies now operate.
According to the news portal El Mostrador, Boric appointed two heads of National Defense; Navy Rear Admiral Jorge Parga for the provinces of Biobío and Arauco, and Army Brigadier General Edward Slater for the Araucanía region.
“Is not a deja vu of Pinera”
The application of the state of emergency in those regions was a measure that Boric himself criticized during his predecessor’s administration Sebastian Pinera, who extended the militarization of southern Chile for months. For his part, the former coordinator of Indigenous Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, Salvador Millaleorejected the decision to apply the state of emergency on strategic routes.
“We are fighting for a political solution and now we will once again have a state of constitutional exception: we need another way of seeing and doing things. Building plurinationality requires greater conviction”, claimed Millaleo, who also recalled that these measures were also taken by Piñera. “Prosecutor with exclusive dedication and state of emergency in Wallmapu. Is not a deja vu of Piñera, is the government of the president, Gabriel Boric, the same one who once said ‘we cannot expect different results always doing the same thing’. President, he is doing the same thing,” the former official wrote on his Twitter account.
According to local media, Millaleo left his post in April due to differences with the Interior Ministry team led by Izkia Siches over how to handle the situation in the south of the country. Shortly before, a visit by Siches to Temucuicui had ended with shots and cuts on the road.
Siches: “no one can see it as a real solution”
The Minister of the Interior defended the state of emergency in a television interview in which she assured that “no one can see it as a real solution to underlying problems”. “That is why we have not blurred our long-term agenda of working on substantive measures for territorial restitution, indigenous demands such as prosecuting crime, drug trafficking, wood theft and crimes that occur in the territory,” he specified.
“We never expect the Armed Forces to enter the communities. Nor that they take charge of any of the underlying problems that exist in La Araucanía and Biobío. They are not for it and they do not expect to have clashes with civilians, ”she added, quoted by the portal. Clinic.
In the state of exception that Piñera had decreed and that was in effect until March 26, the armed forces could deploy air, land, and sea units for surveillance and support of police procedures. Instead, according to the decree approved this week, now they can only provide protection on the routes of the regions declared in emergency.
Parallel to the military deployment the indigenous leaders called to support the political prisoners of their community who are in the Temuco Penitentiary Center accused of crimes mostly related to arson attacks. A hundred Mapuches attended and waited by bonfires outside the jail. “The resistance is not terrorism. Freedom for the Mapuche political prisoners,” read a banner displayed outside the penitentiary.