The Mapuche Nation and Chile: Reclaiming Stolen Territory

At the dawn of this year, old struggles are rekindled again, all over the world, like in the human rich lands of Chile and the Mapuche. In early November, Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced the formation of an institutional body to resolve the historical land dispute between the Chilean state and Mapuche Nation, called the “Commission for Peace and Understanding.” The demand to return the stolen portions of land from Mapuche territory, Araucanía, has been long overdue. As of now, the progressive government of Boric seems eager to fulfill the people’s desires and the “democratic project”

Boric himself promised to satisfy in his presidency, as the new leader of a “people’s Chile”.  The Chilean government is promising to send this commission to perform land registries of all the occupied Mapuche territories. Although the promise is nice, obstacles will hinder the process and probably force the Mapuche to make land concessions again; Boric explains, since the 19th century, “many cities in southern Chile that were built on land that was once Mapuche and these cities must be preserved.” Along with “Much of these lands are currently in the hands of private extractive and logging companies” Despite the good intentions, the struggle to leverage corporations and persuade non-Mapuche inhabitants to return lands to the Mapuche will be epic, but the Boric state seems to be “up to the task”.

Since the fall of the Pinochet Regime, the Mapuche have been campaigning to take back their land, on the legal front and on the streets. “The Mapuche peoples have increasingly been resisting the dominance of multinational forestry companies in the region, demanding return of their lands, greater autonomy and recognition of their rights. Despite the legtimate reactions of Mapuche can be understood, the Chilean state has militarized the region of Araucanía. Killings and incursions have followed since the start of the occupation, with many Mapuche people killed in their struggle to take back their land, not only to honor the memory of their national culture, but to control the real means of their survival and livelihood as the world economy increasingly is strangled by the drive of Neoliberal policies and Global Corporate interventions.  All eyes are staring at the Boric government now, since earlier this year Boric’s constitutional referendum failed to engage the popular masses, suspicions have been thrown at the Boric government as a disappointing political project of the left in Latin America. So, in the spirt of Justice and Liberation, the foundations his campaign stands on, he should make sure the Mapuche Nation is returned of their dispossessed lands, even if it’s the least he can do as a ‘political actor’ in the ‘complicated’ political arena.