This June 20, Chile takes advantage of a national holiday for the National Day of Native Peoples, but our country is the only one in Latin America that does not have them recognized in its current constitution.
The indigenous peoples of Chile celebrate the National Day of Indigenous Peoples this Thursdayone more year like only country in Latin America that does not recognize them in its Constitutionand with little hope that this situation will change in the near future.
“We know that we are a minority, 13% of the population according to the last Censusand as a minority we have certain demands that are legitimate and that we would like to see processed democratically, and that is what today is the duty of the political and democratic system of our country,” the Chilean lawyer and academic, Alihuen Antileo.
For Antileo, a member of the Mapuche indigenous community, the quality of democracy in modern systems can be measured in two functions. “In how they address, first, the legitimate cultural and political differences that exist in a country and, second, in how those differences are treated with sectors that are minorities,” he said.
At least ten indigenous communities live within the country, the Mapuche being the largest. with almost 1,800,000 people, and the most persecuted for defending their lands.
“Now we can show ourselves and they won’t kill usalthough some companions are killed in certain places for defending their territory,” Sandra Durán, from Atacama, explained to EFE, who calls the members of other Andean communities “brothers.”
According to data from International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA)a global human rights organization, in the 2017 census, 12.8% of the population identified as indigenous.
In addition, 87.8% of this Chilean population lives in urban areasaccording to the census, as is the case of Durán, where he feels that he is “in another dimension” due to the school content, which “goes against the environment.”
“The Constitution should recognize all natural elements as subjects of law, because they are part of life. Without the components of nature, we do not exist,” denounced Durán.
Defense and link with nature
Juan Huarancca, Quechua indigenous and teacher of the ‘runa simi’ language, explained the most relevant value for him of the native peoples: “Sensitivity with others, with understanding nature, the land and sensitivity with animals.”
The ‘Indigenous Law’ in Chile has not been modifieddespite the urgent need to bring it into line with international standards, according to the IWGIA.
Furthermore, the human rights organization indicates that after the rejection of the electorate in the Plebiscite of September 2022 to a new constitutional text, the political parties of the Congress seeks to promote a new constituent process through the ‘Agreement for Chile’.
The constitutional recognition of the indigenous population, according to Alihuen Antileo, would mean “winning the right to land and territory, an eminently collective right.”“, since indigenous property is not private, as is generally the case in the West, but rather “seeks to privilege the protection of community assets.”
Regarding educational and linguistic rights, Antileo trusts that through the reform of the ‘Indigenous Law’ the most conservative sectors will be willing to dialogue and advance in this, also placing emphasis on the right to differentiated political participation, with the possibility of having reserved seats in the House or Senate.
A possibility that, in view of the currents that mark Chilean politics, seems very difficult, after a first constituent process in which the indigenous question was instrumentalized in a bitter political debate that ended with the victory of a text that recognized most of the aspirations of the only indigenous peoples not constitutionally recognized in Latin America.
