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The debate over the seats reserved for indigenous peoples that will participate in the drafting of the new Fundamental Charter continues this Saturday and next Monday in the Mixed Commission, under a tension that until today has not been resolved and that has been discussed for more than a year , after the “Agreement for Social Peace and new Constitution”, signed on the historic November 15, 2019.
It is a complex discussion where the positions of the ruling party versus that of the opposition have clashed in recent weeks, trapping a way out that should be as soon as possible, since on January 11 the candidates must be registered. In this tug of war the great issue of conflict is the number of representatives of the 10 native peoples.
The opposition that originally proposed that there be 25 seats was willing to relax its position and reduced the number to 18, but under a hybrid modality: nine would be elected from the 155 conventional seats and the other nine would be supranumerary seats. However, despite being only with a difference of three seats, the right did not yield.
The Mapuche community have been dissatisfied with the little progress the project has had. And they have also expressed their disagreement with the different proposals that have emerged from the opposition, since they consider that it is detrimental to the representativeness of the native peoples. They also question that an indigenous registry is now being required of them in times of a pandemic that – in their opinion – will result in a meaningless bureaucracy and that could be corrected with self-identification at the time of voting.
They also aim their darts against the little flexibility that the right has had in this matter. The Minister of Social Development, Karla Rubilar, has not yielded an inch in her proposal for 15 indigenous seats within the 155 conventional ones. No margin for negotiation has existed in the opposition, despite the proposal of Senator Pedro Araya, who began by reducing the quotas from 25 to 20 places and then going down to 18, as was the proposal of the independent deputy René Saffirio.
“The situation is a shame. It cannot be called otherwise. It has already been a year since the mechanism of reserved seats began to be discussed in Parliament, and there is so far no prospect of progress, and it seems that we are far from having a solution. It is completely a shame and a sign of the relationship that the State has with indigenous peoples, “he told The counter the attorney Salvador Millaleo.
“It highlights the inflexibility of the right wing, which proposes a mechanism that, in reality, for indigenous peoples seems more than a proposal, an excuse, because it raises mechanisms that basically all they do is hinder indigenous participation. For example, a registry, a special registry, when there is no time to do it and especially when we are in a pandemic that would never allow indigenous peoples to be able to really register in that registry is a shame, “said Salvador Millaleo.
Act “classist, racist and discriminatory”
For the Mapuche deputy and president of the Chamber’s Human Rights Commission, Emilia Nuyado (PS), the right has had a “classist, racist and discriminatory act, it has delayed this whole process, it has not wanted to increase the quotas, it has it minimized in 15. They do not want this to be supra-numerary, but to be within the conventional 155 “.
“He also opposed during all these days that people have the right to self-identify. They spoke of this very small registry that the National Corporation for Indigenous Development (Conadi) has, which is also the peoples who have to validate the surnames in their respective territories and peoples. Therefore, the Conadi does not have this study regarding the number of surnames that could prevail and that belong to indigenous peoples within a cadastre, “the parliamentarian questioned.
Nuyado denounced that “there is a political council of Chile Vamos. There are representatives like the Enama (Corporation of Mapuche professionals), who are right-wing militants, and they themselves claim and say that the Government has asked them absolutely nothing.”
In that sense, Nuyado pointed to Minister Rubilar and described her as “arrogant.” He assured that “in the Enama they say that Minister Rubilar is a woman who has double standards, that she has met with them and has imposed that there be 15, that the registration be made, that they are not supra-numeraries. They are clear and they have established their political position regarding the participation of reserved seats of indigenous peoples. “
Finally, he blamed Rubilar for the time that is being lost due to “the classist, racist and discriminatory attitude of the Government”, taking into account that the registration of candidates is on April 11.
“There is fear of the indigenous constituency”
From the Mapuche world they not only point their darts to the right. They also criticize the opposition’s limited ability to negotiate and impose the majority it holds in Parliament. This is how the political analyst Diego Ancalao put it. “One can see in this an impressive lack of political capacity of the opposition, an ineffectiveness that is based on the inability to generate agreements based on the bargaining power that they have. That is, President Piñera has several projects in the pipeline that the The opposition has approved it, and even so it shows the inability to capitalize on the votes it has in Congress to resolve the issue of quotas reserved for indigenous people, “he questioned.
“Seeing that they do not exercise that power, one has the doubt that deep down a speech is for the camera, and another speech is in the kitchen and in that four-walled room where negotiations are being carried out,” said Ancalao.
He also accused the lack of vision of the future and the lack of interest of the Government in listening to the social demands of the people and indigenous peoples. “There is no political will to resolve the issue and the debate on seats is part of the reality show for the platform, because what I see behind this is that the transversal political caste has a pact of non-aggression and of maintaining its privileges, because If reserved seats are allowed, either within 155 or outside, these 24, 25, 18, 15, whatever they are, if they are elected by a different electoral roll (…) they will change the balance of two thirds in the constituent process “.
“The two-thirds, which is the rule of the game that allows the majority to be from the government and the opposition, would lose that hegemony if 15 or 20 indigenous people enter, and they would change the decision-making power of the new norm of the Constitution. tailored to these two hegemonies. There is fear of the indigenous constituency, and that fear is transversal. That is why this political inability to negotiate is to wash its hands afterwards, “he warns.
Regarding the little flexibility that the right has had to negotiate in the matter of reserved seats, Ancalao considers that this is due “to the fact that a large part of the right is financed by groups of economic power that have interests in indigenous territories. They are not going to allow the indigenous peoples to define territorial rights, because that will clash with the hegemony and the interests that they have in Mapuche territory. “
“Minimum 20 reserved seats”
Mapuche leaders have also not been satisfied with the other opposition proposals for reserved seats for indigenous peoples. Ancalao stated that “the proposals they are presenting are not related to the need for a petition from indigenous peoples. It is shown that they are proposals that are based on the government’s negotiating power. They are proposals that do not consist of substantive issues, only to change the number of constituents, therefore for me they are stagnant negotiations that are increasingly reducing the number of indigenous representatives. And if it drops a lot, what is done is to take power away from the indigenous peoples so that they can have that ability to influence decisions on the issues of the new Constitution “.
For the Mapuche leader, the indigenous quotas have to be greater than 20, “because the indigenous peoples are 2 million, then it has to be over 20 to be a representation according to population density.”
The same raises the deputy Nuyado, who pointed to The counter that “the indigenous peoples have stated that these seats must be supranumerary and that, therefore, they must be based on the 2017 Census. We cannot reduce from 25 to 18, less to 15, it should be the minimum of 20.”
“All you want to reduce is to ignore the right of indigenous peoples to participate in this constitutional convention,” he said.
For his part, Salvador Millaleo considered that “the best proposal is the one that is closest to the highest number proposed, and it is necessary to assume in this negotiation, the ideal number is not going to be achieved.”
“However,” he clarifies, “it is crucial that the parliamentarians also understand that everyone has to do so in agreement, in dialogue, consulting with the indigenous sectors. I hope that these parliamentarians are talking with indigenous actors to ask their opinion.”
They ask for greater participation
In the midst of this heated discussion, the joint leadership of the “constituent Mapuche political txawun” summoned the Government and parliamentarians of Chile. We are going to settle the reserved seats to ensure the participation of indigenous peoples in the constituent body.
Ingrid Conejeros and Gustavo Quilaqueo, professors and leaders of this group, stated that “for a year now this demand for reserved seats has been addressed and they have not yet been able to meet this real and effective participation. Therefore, they must take charge of the consequences that may continue to germinate, in the face of denialism, racism and discrimination, by leaving indigenous peoples out of the political dialogue to partially address the conflict of the State with the historical demands without answers in these failed 30 years. “
“Let’s put an end to the historical paternalism in which they keep us, we are political subjects and holders of fundamental rights that the State of Chile must respect and promote. This moment is of great importance, opening towards plurinationality, towards the broad and diverse construction of a A new society, with minimal guarantees of participation, of recognition of a people systematically excluded from the decisions that assist them as a nation, “they added.
Quilaqueo commented that “there is no effort by the Government and right-wing parliamentarians to provide reserved seats. The Mapuche organizations proposed 24 supra-numerary seats with self-identification, we see the difficulty of creating a special registry at the last minute, it is complex and bureaucratic, therefore that will end up holding back participation “,
Meanwhile, Conejeros maintained that “the famous Peace Agreement totally excluded us, denying our existence. Today it is being repeated once again in the convention. Chile needs to build a broad and pluralist constitution, keeping in mind that the actors and actors were and were. politico-social managers who trigger and demand this constitutional change from the streets. “
Javiera Arce: “The song has a very bad start”
The participation of indigenous peoples was also analyzed by the political scientist Javiera Arce in the program Political Week from The counter. The analyst stated that the issue “has a very bad start”, because it could leave other districts with less proportionality, which could even cause, in some cases, to return to the binominal in some districts.
“The issue of reserved seats has a very bad exit. What is being proposed now in this Mixed Commission is to remove the reserved seats from within the 155 seats, which would leave districts with less proportionality. In some, in fact, we could return to the binominal, and that is highly complex, because it would benefit the largest political forces to the detriment even not only of the smallest, but also of the independents, “he questioned.
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