First change: 04/04/2022 – 20:16 Last change: 04/04/2022 – 20:14
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Chilean President Gabriel Boric has promised to resolve the conflict with the Mapuche people through “dialogue” in press statements, ruling out that indigenous claims could jeopardize Argentina’s territorial integrity Monday in Buenos Aires.
“This is not an issue related to Argentina’s territorial sovereignty, it is an issue and we have to deal with it, a conflict between the Chilean state and the Mapuche people. And we won’t ignore that.” Boric assured. .
“We have chosen a path, which is that of dialogue, and this dialogue will disturb many who believe that things can be achieved through violence or through confrontation,” the president remarked more than two weeks after one of his ministers said so done by gunfire fired in the air in a Mapuche area.
Boric’s comments come after his Interior Minister, Izkia Siches, caused a stir in Argentina by mentioning the term Wallmapu, which refers to the Mapuche-inhabited areas on either side of the Chilean-Argentine border.
“An attempt was made to stir up a controversy. None of us have questioned the territorial sovereignty of our respective countries and we have no pending issues in this regard,” Boric said.
For his part, Argentine President Alberto Fernández denied any discomfort at the minister’s statements.
“For us, these words did not cause any concern, the meaning of these statements was clear,” stressed the Argentine President.
Boric recently, on orders from his predecessor Sebastián Piñera, ordered the withdrawal of forces operating since last October in the La Araucanía and Biobío regions, 600km south of Santiago, to stop arson attacks attributed to radical Mapuche groups.
Chile’s Interior Minister Izkia Siches (R) talks to an indigenous Mapuche woman during a visit to the municipality of Ercilla, Chile, March 15, 2022 Mario QUILODRAN AFP
In mid-March, an attempt by Siches to talk to Mapuches in the conflict zone in Araucanía failed after the minister was greeted with shots in the air.
Over the past decade, Chile has seen an escalation of violence, with arson attacks amid a lack of resolution to the demands of the Mapuche, the country’s largest ethnic group, whose ancestral lands have been reduced due in part to the expansion of the logging industry.
© 2022 AFP