It occurred in Los Rios and affected vehicles used in the construction of a wind farm. It is the second coup in less than two days in the Chilean south and it occurs after a visit by the president to the area.
In open defiance of the government of President Gabriel Boric, a new arson attack in southern Chile completely destroyed 13 trucks at the Caman Wind Farm, located in the Los Rios region, more than 740 kilometers from Santiago. It is the second coup in less than two days launched by groups of alleged Muches in Patagonian areas, one of the most contentious issues for the management of the La Moneda Palace.
The fire of the transport vehicles follows the destruction caused by an arson attack against two residential cabins in the early hours of last Saturday in the commune of Canete, in the Biobio region, an area where it has been taking place for decades a bitter conflict between radical Muche organizations, logging companies and the Chilean State. In fact, a third home was partially destroyed.
The burning of the thirteen trucks used in the construction of a wind farm in Los Rios was condemned by the government and local authorities, who announced legal actions against those responsible. The events occurred on Saturday afternoon when several hooded people they attacked the wind farm under construction in the municipality of Paillaco and detained the workers, whom they later released. There were no injuries.
The attack on the trucks came just one day after a visit by President Boric to areas under a state of emergency, which allows military forces to be deployed for highway control and public order.
Claim
Boric, who is in favor of resolving the conflict with the Muches through dialogue, created a presidential commission that a cadastre of the claimed lands will begin next week and that were seized by the State in the 19th century. Within two years, it must report how many territories can be restored.
The attacks in the south increase the insecurity crisis that Chileans are experiencing due to the rise in criminal violence in cities and rural areas, experts say.
As reported by the Public Ministry, the fire in the thirteen trucks “was caused by a group of subjects who arrived at the place armed and with their faces covered.” This fact is added to another attack of similar characteristics that occurred in the same area last January. “It is a very serious attack”said the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Toha, when being interviewed by the TVN channel.
Toha did not rule out that the government considers extend the state of exception that has governed for more than a year the two neighboring regions —La Araucania and Biobio— to the Los Rios region, where at least six attacks have been registered in the last month.
“It is urgent to stop these types of attacks carried out by violent groups that threaten the safety of workers and communities in the area,” the Mainstream Renewable Power company, which is building the park, replied in a statement.
The magnitude of the attack led opposition parliamentarians to put pressure on the government to extend the state of constitutional exception to Los Rios.
Exception status
Since May 2022, A state of exception governs in said area constitutional law ratified by Congress 23 times, a measure that allows military deployment in the area to help the Carabineros (militarized Police) to control public order, including surveillance on the main highways and surrounding roads.
In La Araucania and other areas of southern Chile, a territorial dispute has existed for decades between the State, some Muche communities and forestry companies that exploit lands considered ancestral by the indigenous people.
The Muche people, the largest indigenous ethnic group in Chile, reclaim the lands they inhabited for centuriesbefore they were forcibly occupied by the Chilean State at the end of the 19th century in a process officially known as the “Pacification of La Araucania”.
In this context, arson attacks are common to machinery and land, and the conflict has cost the lives of a large number of Muche community members at the hands of State agents, also registering the death of police officers and hunger strikes by indigenous prisoners.
However, the majority of Muche communities repudiate violence, while expressing their disproval of all kinds of attacks launched by groups that claim to represent the demands of the sector and they demand by force the return of ancestral territories.
Although in general the arson attacks in the south have occurred against forestry companies, in the last week there have been violent incidents against railway bridges, light poles or pedestrian walkways.
Source: AFP, AP and Clarin
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Source: Clarin
