MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean truck drivers threaten with a countrywide strike unless government stops attacks in Araucania

TheNational Confederation of Cargo Transport (CNTC) said Congress had failed to pass laws necessary to stop these kinds of attacks and punish them adequately.

Truck drivers in Chile late on Sunday called for a countrywide strike to begin Thursday if President Sebastian Piñera and Congress do not act immediately to stem a rising tide of attacks against their number in Chile´s Araucania region.

The threat of a walk-off comes after a nine-year-old girl was hospitalized with a gunshot wound after an attack on her father´s cement truck. Police have launched an investigation but have yet to identify suspects.

The country´s National Confederation of Cargo Transport (CNTC) said Congress had failed to pass laws necessary to stop these kinds of attacks and punish them adequately.

“We demand that Congress urgently...approve the 13 laws related to the prevention, persecution and sanctioning of crime,” they said in the statement, referring to bills currently under review by lawmakers.

Barring that, they said, a strike would begin after midnight on Thursday. They encouraged others to join in the walk-off to ensure “the re-establishment of the rule of law.”

Chile´s Araucania has seen a spike in attacks on transport trucks and factories in recent months. The region of south-central Chile has long been convulsed by a simmering conflict between the indigenous Mapuche and the Chilean government.

Mapuche groups renounced the attack on Saturday and Sunday. It was still not immediately clear who, if anyone, had claimed responsibility for the incident.

The Araucania is home to many of the 1.7 million indigenous Mapuche that live in Chile. Indigenous activists there say their lands are increasingly threatened by agriculture, forestry and other industries; they blame the state for failing to uphold their historical rights.