Sebastián Piñera promised a stronger hand during his visit …

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera has announced that he will promote a “more effective anti-terrorism law” after a series of arson attacks in the indigenous region of Araucanía, in the south of the country. Until there, where the Mapuche people claim ancestral territories, Piñera has sent ministers and police chiefs to try to unblock the conflict. During, pro-government lawmakers have asked him to declare a state of siege in the region.

The chain of forest fires comes amid the historic conflict of the Mapuche people, the largest ethnic group in the country who claim land by ancestral right from the Chilean state, which it accuses of having ceded them to individuals. In this context, eight pro-government deputies, all from Renovación Nacional (RN, Piñera party), plus Senator Felipe Kast, from Evolution Politica (Evopoli, the new right) They demanded to declare a state of siege throughout the region.

“I want to ask the president that once and for all we declare a state of siege in the region of Araucanía and therefore be able to give the right to live in a free and sovereign country to all Chileans, which is not the case today in the region ”, he declared. Diego Paulsen, President of the Lower House and Deputy RN for one of the districts in the region, whose stay was attacked in 2015. In the same vein, MP Ximena Ossandón warned that “terrorism must be fought before it is too late”.

Interior Minister Rodrigo Delgado, Piñera en Araucanía’s special envoy, met with the police to analyze the acts of violence suffered in the region. “We don’t care what happens,” said Delgado, trying to appease the demands of the region’s toughest.

Partially conforming to the demands of its allies, The Chilean president added military personnel to the police patrols carried out on Wednesday in the three regions in the south of the country. where fires multiply. In the regions of Araucanía, but also in Biobío and Los Ríos, the government has set up mixed police and military patrols after the increase in attacks on farms, machinery and logging companies last week.

The Chilean authorities point to groups that support the Mapuche cause as responsible for the violence, but they also claim to have detected the presence of drug gangs and timber thieves in the region. Military support “translates into a strengthening of intelligence action with mixed patrols of the police and the armed forces. in the most vulnerable and risky places in these regions, “said the president Piñera. Added that “in the south there is a kind of marriage between drug trafficking and terrorism” and reiterated the need to advance its legislative agenda.

“The mixed teams must ensure the control of public order within the framework of the pandemic in the case of the army, of course, but also in the context of the different situations which occur in each of these regions”, declared the Minister Delgado. The mixed patrols are part of a security plan the government intends to implement in the region, which also includes new laws providing for tougher penalties for violent people.

The pacification of Araucanía is one of the five priorities that Piñera set for himself when he took office on March 11, 2018. However, he was accused of militarizing the indigenous conflict with the creation of the Jungla command under question., which was not mentioned again after the death of indigenous community member Camilo Catrillanca in November of the same year.

Not only are farmers pushing for greater security, but also powerful logging companies based there. Indigenous communities are demanding return of ancestral lands, and the state’s National Indigenous Commission has purchased properties, but at prices that have tripled as a result of the conflict. Evictions are often the scene of brutal clashes between indigenous peoples and the police.