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There is no conformity in the native peoples after the approval of the reform that guarantees them exclusivity in 17 of the 155 quotas that make up the Constitutional Convention that will draft a new Constitution.
Leaders of Atacameño, Rapanui, Mapuche and Kawashkar peoples raised their doubts about a possible “capture” of the parties from their reserved seats, due to the option that they could be militants of communities, with ethnic descent, who apply for the positions that are legislated to represent communities and, in the end, end up obeying political colors.
“Don’t mess with our seats,” says the leader of the Association of Municipalities with the Mapuche Mayor and Tirúa’s communal chief, Adolfo Millabur, who analyzes running as a conventional candidate if his community in the province of Arauco decides.
“They are our quotas”, replies the mayor of Rapa Nui, Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa.
An election that is scheduled for Sunday, April 11, 2021.
What the law says
The recent constitutional reform that allowed the 17 seats reserved for indigenous peoples was approved in mid-December.
The law allocates 7 quotas for the Mapuche people, 2 for the Aymara people, and one seat for each town, Diaguita, Colla, Atacameño, Quechua, Yagán, Kawésqar, Chango and Rapanui.
Regarding the requirements for candidates, the legislation indicates that they must prove that they belong to a certain people, through the corresponding certificate of indigenous quality issued by Conadi, with the exception of the Chango people, who must only do so by means of an affidavit.
It is also established that the nominations of peoples Mapuche, Aymara and Diaguita They must be sponsored by at least 3 communities or 5 indigenous associations registered with Conadi or a traditional chiefdom, recognized by law, or 3 representative organizations of peoples that are not registered.
Nominations sponsored by 120 signatures of people with accredited indigenous quality, from the same people, for the Mapuche, Aymara and Diaguita cases.
Regarding the other peoples, it will reach only with the sponsorship of a community, registered association or unregistered organization or with the sponsorship of at least 60 signatures.
“We didn’t like how the law turned out”
Adolfo Millabur ensures that the Mapuche world is dissatisfied with how the law was.
“The first thing, that it is not by self-identification, but by registration, which by the time that remains to complete it, is an extra complication. The initial proposal was that there be 24 and there were 17. We, the Mapuches, are the great losers of the seats, because we are 86% of the indigenous population and we play less than it should be ”, he asserts
Millabur.
“Also the requirement that we proposed, that it be defined that the candidacies be sponsored by the communities, indigenous associations and that the applicants should be without political militancy. All that was not. To sponsor a candidacy it has to be with 3 communities or 5 indigenous associations, but in addition another option was imposed, that they be 120 people, that individually they can sponsor an indigenous candidate ”, adds Millabur.
This last option does not accept the Mapuche world of Arauco, since it would leave room for political parties to intervene and, according to Millabur, addict the objective of the process.
“This is how members of political parties fit, even without saying it publicly, that is the trap,” he added.
“We hope that it does not happen and our aspiration is that the parties do not get involved, because what we hope they are there they represent the peoples. If they do, they deceive the people and they would continue with the tutelage of the peoples’ aspiration, it would be a bad sign if they influence “, he maintains.
The cry from Rapa Nui
From Rapa Nui, the communal chief, Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa, also joins the claim of his pair of Tirúa.
“Therein lies the trap – criticizes the mayor – as well as others that we have seen (…) They do not stop playing with something that should not make it political. All the native peoples agree that we must enrich the new Republic and that position has to do with the civilizing base of the ethnic groups ”.
“Involving politics, it damages that, it makes a mess. You have to put a stop to that, to prevent that from happening. That is why the native peoples fight ”, he adds.
Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa assures that on the island there are already signs of political party movements to capture the only quota that the Rapa Nui people have in the Constitutional Convention.
From the atacameño world
Sergio Cubillos Peine, President of the Council of Atacameño Peoples – an original town that was assigned a quota in the Constitutional Convention – indicated that in the north there are doubts about participating in the process.
“We found that 17 seats it is not an effective participation of the original peoples. This is a game engineered by a political sector, ”says Cubillos.
Regarding the possibility that political parties may intervene in the process, the Atacameño representative affirms that “this is what I was saying before, this has to do with taking advantage of the parties to have control of the Constitutional Convention. For this reason, allowing people who are active in parties to be candidates has to do with that ”, he adds.
“U.S we will report if that happens. Not only if it happens in the Atacameño town, but other brothers will also do it, from the north and south of Chile, that will be denounced ”, warns Cubillos.
“They are not going to fight for our rights”
Haydee Eagle, President of the Atap community of the Kawashkar people, in the Magallanes region, also knocked on the table in relation to the open window left to the political world to get their quotas.
The leader explained that there are 16 Kawashkar communities in the area, some that are guided by the action of political parties, however, in the group of five to which she belongs, none are linked to them.
“Do not confuse the issue of an original people, it has never been done with political parties,” he highlights.
“They they will never fight for an indigenous right. They will fight for themselves and their people. Do not forget that here there was an ethnocide with our people, in which the State has not been responsible, “he adds.
“When a person does not have a cultural heritage, where they have their roots, ancestry or DNA, nothing is going to do for their people. Whoever it is must have two fingers of the forehead of cultural awareness “, concludes Haydee Águila.
A kind of “Constituent Colonization” the native peoples raise, something that alerts them and wants to prevent.
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