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Chilean government to allot plots to more than 100 Mapuche communities in Araucania

The affected villages distrust the announcement, while sources from the ministry of indigenous affairs say a new phase of “understanding, dialogue and trust” has begun · Several communities keep on occupying land · Police retaliates with arrests and violence.

Michelle Bachelet's cabinet has announced this week it is intending to allot plots of land to 115 Mapuche communities in a bid to reduce tension between the indigenous population and the government. Minister for indigenous affairs José Antonio Viera-Gallo has said the Chilean government is to purchase land so that it can be allotted to a number of communities later. The handing over of land will take place next January. According to the minister, the action will represent a "new spirit in the region, not only within the communities but also within civil society organizations", and added the government is hoping the new climate will help to "decrease conflict and re-establish dialogue". It remains to be seen whether Mapuche population will endorse the plan and agree to minimize unrest.

To date several indigenous leaders have expressed distrust towards an eventual land allocation. "We know the compromise will not be fulfilled because the government could have solved it a year ago", Jorge Huenchullán, werken -authority- of the Temucuicui autonomous community said. He further added that the administration has not the will to reach an agreement on land demands.

Land occcupations go on
Other Mapuche communities continue to recover their ancestral land from the hands of landlords and private companies. According to Azkintuwe newspaper, more than 100 Mapuches have taken an estate called El Canelo in Tirúa, which is owned by a timber company named Volterra.

A few days earlier, the Chilean police evicted and arrested around 25 people who had occupied the Pisu Piqué estate near Osorno.

Former UN special rapporteur against antiterrorist laws
The alternative online journal Mapuexpress has issued an interview with former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, who was highly critical of the ways used by the Chilean state to fight the Mapuche resistance. The former UN official expressed his concern because "antiterrorist legislation from the Pinochet era is still being implemented for common offences [for example, occupation and arson]". Stavenhaguen thinks "enforcement of such legislation to criminalize political actions connected to land protection and Mapuche rights internationally recognized [by ILO Convention No. 169]" is an infringement of human rights.

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