Vídeo del grupo Weichan Auka Mapu: "Serán derrotados por la fuerza del pueblo mapuche en armas”

A Mapuche person died Wednesday afternoon during clashes between Indigenous activists and security forces in the southern region of Chile, which has been militarized since last month. Initially, the government of conservative President Sebastián Piñera reported two deaths and three injuries, but the Public Prosecutor's Office later clarified that only one person had died and that another Mapuche man was in serious condition at a hospital in Temuco. Amid the usual confusion and lack of information surrounding these types of ongoing confrontations, the Interior Ministry explained that two violent incidents occurred in the area on Wednesday, four hours apart. According to the official version, Carabineros (the militarized police) and Marines were attacked with firearms, allegedly by Mapuche activists. Just days before the presidential elections on November 21, the volatile situation in ancestral Mapuche territory is escalating into violence. The declaration of a state of emergency in the Biobío and La Araucanía regions—decreed by Piñera on October 12th, no less—which was supposed to last for a month, although conservative sectors are already calling for its extension, has only added fuel to the fire. On Tuesday, a group of unknown individuals derailed a freight train in the area and burned four cars and the locomotive. This represents a significant escalation in the frequent acts of violence in the region, which are generally limited to the burning of trucks and fields, usually claimed by the Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM). Following the activist's death, a group calling itself Weichan Auka Mapu (Malleco War) released a video on social media showing about thirty masked individuals conducting military training with weapons of war, reaffirming their “revolutionary commitment to acts of sabotage against capitalist interests.” “We urge this new police and military force to leave our territory, because they will be defeated by the strength of the armed Mapuche people,” one of the hooded figures stated, reading a statement.