Mapuche Identity and the Role of History

Before the part of South America that is today known as Chile was conquered by the Spanish Empire in the 16^th Century, a network of Indigenous societies occupied the land. The Mapuche were one of the best-known among them. During the Arauco Wars, a series of conflicts with Spanish conquistadors, a Mapuche warrior named Galvarino was captured on November 8, 1557. For his resistance, and as a warning to his community, Spanish soldiers cut off his hands and sent him back to his people. To the great shock of the Spanish, Galvarino returned shortly after, with blades attached where his hands once were, and assassinated the second-in-command general of the Spanish forces. Chileans recite this story to this day, citing it as evidence of the impressive strength of the Mapuche.

Collective Memories

Collective memories, shaped by shared histories and myths, are essential for forming a community capable of acting as a unified political entity. Once built, a political body represents its people and shared goals, while navigating conflicts with outside actors. After Chile gained independence from Spain in 1810, the new government carried out a string of military operations to conquer the southern land of the Mapuche. The collective history and myth asserted at the time declared that these missions were done to pacify the fierce Mapuche warriors. The Chilean government captured a significant amount of terrain and claimed it for the new nation. This began a long, ambivalent history of both recognition of the Mapuche people and their strength, and the state’s desire to usurp their territory.

The 1984 Law

During Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship in the country, the “Anti-Terrorism Law” was created in 1984 that allowed the Chilean government to act swiftly against any actors suspected of terrorist activities. The law required little evidence before a potential police action and was used to suppress Mapuche resistance. The post-dictatorship government continued to fail to recognise the Mapuche as a nation. The continued application of the 1984 Anti-Terrorism Law has been argued as an illegitimate basis for the prosecution of Mapuche defendants. In 2017, the UN highlighted that the anti-terrorist legislation weakens the possibility of a fair trial, creating devastating consequences for tightly-knit Mapuche communities, and encouraging animosity between them and the Chilean government.

Political Movement

Particularly from the 1990s onwards, the Mapuche started political movements to make their resistance to land appropriation by the Chilean government heard. They sold their territory to foreign and domestic enterprises, such as lumber and copper mining companies. In response, declarations by the Mapuche used nation-based vocabulary to argue for recognised autonomy, protection from the abuse of the Carabineros de Chile (the Chilean national police force), and to declare rights to their land.

Three Carabineros Assassinated

On April 27th, 2024, three Carabineros stationed in Cañete were murdered in their patrol car. The three victims were Sergeant Carlos Cisterna Navarro, Corporals Sergio Arévalo Lobos and Misael Vidal Cid. Evidence suggests that they were shot, and their truck set aflame. Cañete is one of the oldest cities in Chile and situated in the Biobio region, which has been ripe with violence, stemming from radical Mapuche groups who roam a stretch of highway and guard it against the government, and logging companies. Despite the region being latently unstable, the violent death of the three officers shocked the nation. A three-day period of mourning and a state of emergency with increased security ensued. Carabinero officials have claimed that the investigation is pointing towards radicalised Mapuche groups as the perpetrators. However, the government is careful to not rule out other possibilities. The trepidation around the government’s naming of the Mapuche stems from wanting to tread carefully in light of long-standing tensions between the Chilean government and the Indigenous group. It remains unknown who killed the Carabineros, as well as what the motivation for this act of violence was.

The Boric Administration

In 2022, Gabriel Boric of the left-wing political party, Social Convergence, was elected President of Chile. His campaign promised to alleviate tensions between the Mapuche and the Chilean government. In 2023, the Boric Administration launched the Presidential Commission for Peace and Understanding. The committee was established to create solutions to issues of territorial disputes and monetary reparations for Mapuche families. During his former term in Congress, Boric heavily criticised former President Sebastian Piñera’s decision to increase the presence of the military within Biobío. However, following the murder of the three Carabineros, Boric repeated history by declaring a state of emergency and a curfew across the region. As Boric moved more to the right in his coalitions with other parties, he increased the security budget. Voters on the left were frustrated with his policies to not recognised the legitimacy of the Mapuche state, and on the right, growing anxiety around security has led to voters demanding an iron fist towards terrorism.

Discontent

An April 2024 survey showed the greatest disapproval with the Boric administration to be in the area of domestic security. Sixty-nine percent of respondents demanded a different or “more forceful” approach to security, with only 29% approving of his the administration’s current policies. This mirrors Boric’s general approval ratings and has left him in an uncomfortable position for re-election in 2025. The discontent is not unfounded: between 2021 and 2022 the homicide rate in Chile rose by 32%. These surveys and figures help explain the sensitivities Chileans feel around the subjects of potential regional unrest or police killings. Drug trafficking organisations hailing from Venezuela, copper thieves and timber mafias from the north of Chile, and new turf wars within major cities like Santiago and Valparaiso have all contributed to the rise in homicide rates. Violence attributed to militant Mapuche groups is more difficult to determine. Many Mapuche leaders emphasise that violence carried out by extremists does not represent their community, and preconceived notions permeate the public imagination regarding the Mapuche people.