Chile's Undersecretary of the Interior Manuel Monsalve Wednesday announced that a red alert was being declared in the southern part of the country following arson attacks allegedly perpetrated by Mapuche rebels, it was reported in Santiago.
Chile's National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response (Senapred) Wednesday ordered the evacuation of 14 communes in the regions of Ñuble, Biobío, and La Araucanía, including Nacimiento, Purén, and Contulmo, which have all been particularly affected by the forest fires.
Chilean authorities announced late Sunday that the fire in Viña del Mar was under control and declared a red alert for a similar incident in La Araucanía.
With just about two weeks to go before the highly-polarized presidential elections between radical candidates from the left and the right, a group claiming to be fighting for the rights of the Mapuche indigenous peoples Friday committed yet another arson attack in the Biobio region in southern Chile. The fire affected a house and two sheds, it was reported.
As the State of Emergency currently in force in Chilean Regions where armed conflicts are going on with alleged Mapuche rebels in arms in coming to an end next Tuesday, 81.56% of people were in favor of it being renewed by Congress, a Citizen Consultation in La Araucanía showed Sunday.
Following on another arson attack in the Chilean region of La Araucanía, the land of the Mapuche indigenous communities, the presidential delegate Victor Manoli has called on Congress to speed legislation to pursue and arrest the culprits of these terrorist actions
Chilean officials strongly condemned the display of guns during the funeral of a man who was killed in a shootout with Carabineros following an arson attack, which took place last Friday in an estate in La Araucanía Region.
Former Carabineros Sergeant Carlos Alarcón told prosecutors that he and his fellow servicemen were coached to hide the truth from investigators in the death of Mapuche leader Camilo Catrillanca Marín on November 14 in La Araucania, it was reported Tuesday.
The government of President Michelle Bachelet on Thursday apologized in the name of the Chilean state to the indigenous Mapuche tribe for taking their lands and said it has a pending debt in terms of public policies that will allow the La Araucania region, where 600,000 of the Indians live, to emerge from poverty.
The Chilean government started contacts in an attempt to ease tension and find solutions to the escalating conflict with the indigenous Mapuche in the southern province of La Araucania which has seen killings and properties torched.