Below is an article published by: Santiago Times

According to the UKL-based organization Mapuche International Link (MIL), there has been very little, if any, food, tents, cloths, water, gas or electricity in the rural areas of the central-south regions of the country inhabited by ethnic Mapuches. This is in contradiction with official claims that the situation in Chile is under control and improving for most citizens.

“The Mapuches face ceaseless repression of their political and ancestral rights. As such, they have a reason to worry that their needs will be put at the bottom of the state´s intervention list,” says MIL vice-secretary Nina Dean.

According to Mapuche activist Miguel Cheuqueman, government aid arrived to the municipalities, such as Tirua, Canete, Arauco and Lebu. But it was not distributed to isolated Mapuche communities. “The municipalities probably don´t have sufficient means. However, we suspect that the lack of will also plays role,” Cheuqueman, who represents the regional Mapuche group La Identidad Territorial Lafkenche, told the Santiago Times. There have been many conflicts between the state and the Mapuche community in the La Araucania region in the past years, mostly over land. (ST, Nov. 30).

Feeling that they are left alone, Mapuche civil society organizations are taking initiative into their hands, collecting donations and distributing them into rural areas. Still, they lack resources that the state has at its disposal. Generally, most Mapuche communities are in very isolated parts of the country. These are now even more inaccessible due to destroyed roads and broken communication lines. As a result, it has been difficult to know the exact impact of the earthquake in these communities.

“The government aid should reach everybody, regardless if they are white, black or Mapuche,” Cheuqueman said.
Mapuche community members also complained that the Chilean authorities as well as the international press focus only on Santiago, Concepción and the area between these two cities. “From the information given by various Chilean officials, it looks like the strong earthquake hit and devastated only the big cities in our country,” write Mapuche bloggers from Temucuicui Autonomous community.  “Chile’s TV and media in general are forgetting that towns south of Concepcion suffered destruction of similar magnitude,” said Reynaldo Mariqueo from MIL.

The Mapuche community, estimated at more than one million, inhabits an area that stretches from the center to the south of Chile and Argentina. They showed a fierce resistance to the Spanish conquistadors and finally were granted autonomy that they lost after Chile´s independence. 

To this day, the Mapuches keep fighting for their territorial and cultural rights. Some of their claims succeeded in recent years (ST, Dec. 3).