Fires ravage southern Chile, government blames Mapuches
[Translations of two articles from El Mostrador of Santiago, Chile, for January 6 and 8. See originals here and here. During an unusually warm and dry summer, fires in central and southern Chile have destroyed some 50,000 hectares of pristine forest since they started in late December. The regions of Bío Bío, Maule and Araucanía are particularly affected. The Mapuche indigenous peoples have struggled to regain their homelands in the area, opposing forestry and other operations, and opposition to construction of the HydroAysen hydroelectric plants in the region has been massive and strong.]
Firefighters in Carahue dispute Piñera’s explanation of how fires started
by Christian Buscaglia
President Sebastián Piñera announced yesterday a formal complaint invoking the Anti-Terrorist Law [which dates from the days of the Pinochet dictatorship] against those found responsible for the fires that have affected immense parts of Maule and Araucanía and have cost the lives of six firefighters working for a private company. “We have credible information that leads us to assume that there was a criminal intent behind these fires,” he declared from the La Moneda palace.
His account was backed by Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter. “There have been fires in the Carahue area, where the team members arrived very quickly, that began, very significantly, at a dozen places at the same time, which tells us that very probably a human intelligence was at work there and not simply chance or nature,” the minister stated.
This hypothesis had nevertheless been refuted earlier by the commander of the Carahue firefighters, Héctor Rebolledo, who pointed out that the disaster could have begun during the illegal production of charcoal.
“Since Saturday, the day the fire was reported, the evidence remains that the fire began as a result of a group of people making charcoal in the area. That is what we are working on,” he indicated.
Along the same lines, he criticized the inadequate support on the part of state institutions charged with confronting these emergencies. “There were no Conaf [Corporación Nacional Forestal] firefighters, experts on fighting forest fires, because they were working on other fires. On Monday, with very little support, our people began working in the area,” he stressed.
The mayor of Carahue, Pedro Vera Paredes, expressed his annoyance and disagreement with national government authorities “because this could have been avoided if it had been controlled in time.”
“The capacity to respond failed here. There should have been a timely response, and here I also accept my responsibility, and through a lack of knowledge we did not do it. There should have been immediate action on Saturday when the fire started within view of the watch towers, in sight of the forest businesses and Conaf, there should have been operations against it immediately,” the mayor stated.
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La Moneda reaffirms claims of criminal intent but avoids accusing Mapuches
“We are going to continue working with the Mapuche communities as we have been doing during our administration,” affirmed Minister of the Interior and Public Security Rodrigo Hinzpeter as he announced a visit on Monday to La Araucanía by the head of Social Development, Joaquín Lavín.
In the company of government spokesman Andrés Chadwick at the La Moneda palace, the head of the cabinet reported that a day of mourning has been declared in the Bío Bío and La Araucanía regions to coincide with the funerals for the seven firefighters who died as they were fighting a fire in Carahue.
The disaster on the Casa Piedra lands, belonging to the Forestal Mininco, resulted in a formal complaint by the administration invoking the Anti-Terrorist Law, an action criticized by Javier Couso, director of the constitutional law program of the UDP [Universidad Diego Portales], who argued that it was “mixing apples and oranges.” The judgement that the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco [CAM – the country’s largest Mapuche organization] would have made an incendiary attack in the area led to speculation that the group was connected to the tragedy in Carahue.
The “conjectures”
The same day the workers died, the head of the Ministry of the Interior travelled to the area and commented as he got off the plane, “One wonders how far the violence can go, the senselessness. A few days ago we saw how a helicopter was attacked and later this attack claimed by the CAM. A few days later we see fires that, curiously, start at the same time at different points.” In addition, the minister affirmed that “This type of attack definitely deserves the label of terrorist act” and declared, “It is legitimate to make conjectures and the citizenry deserve conjectures.”
Today Hinzpeter avoided the supposed link with CAM and asserted that the administration “has the willingness and the very deep commitment to move forward in significant steps to give the Mapuche communities and all the Mapuche people, and all the indigenous peoples in general, better living conditions and greater opportunites for development and progress.”
After a number of media throughout the world referred to what had happened in the south as a terrorist act for which La Moneda pointed at the indigenous peoples, Mapuche representatives like Natividad Llanquileo and José Ancalao of the Federación Mapuche de Estudiantes harshly challenged the Sebastián Piñera administration’s claims.
The head of Interior was questioned on the subject and asserted,“As we indicated yesterday, our administration has talked with many people who have witnessed and have received testimony concerning the origins of these fires.”
“We have read and have received information that these fires started at the same instant in dozens of places and people with experience and who know about these occurrences give us relative certainty that it is a matter of fires that were not brought on by chance or by acts of nature alone but by deliberate acts by persons,” the official insisted.
Hinzpeter explained that therefore they had given all the evidence to Justice so that it would be the Ministerio Público that investigates and “it will be up to the judges to establish definitively the responsibilities in a fitting way.”
Asked if he rejected the claim that CAM or another organization is linked to the fire on the Matte property, the minister explained, “The only ones charged with establishing responsibilities in our country are the courts of justice, so what the administration has done is state that it has evidence that these fires were caused intentionally and from there let the courts know so it will be they who determine responsibilities. It is not up to the government, nor is it fitting. to assign individual responsibilities,” he asserted.
Tags: Andres Chadwick, Carahue, Chile, Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco, Federacion Mapuche de Estudiantes, forest fires, Jose Ancalao, Mapuche peoples, Natividad Llanquileo, Rodrigo Hinzpeter, Sebastian Pinera