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The rejection of the Chamber of Deputies to the seat for the Afro-descendant people in the Constitutional Convention unleashed the indignation of the representative communities of the tribal people, of the parliamentarians of the area and of the opposition congressmen. Despite the setback, and without legislative alternatives in the pipeline, some options arise for this group to continue fighting.
“This day will be recorded among the saddest moments of the Afro-descendant people. This constituent process was stained with this act of racism that was done to the Afro-descendant people, ”said an upset Cristian Báez, one of the founders of Oro Negro in the Azapa Valley, once the vote was finalized.
The quorum for Afro-descendant people was rejected in the Chamber of Deputies, as the quorum of 3/5 was not reached, that is, 82 votes in favor, 49 against and 17 abstentions. It needed 93 votes to pass.
The entire opposition voted in favor of the Afro-descendant quota and only the UDI Nino Baltolu and the RN Erika Olivera folded with their support from the official ranks. The right, meanwhile, was divided between abstention and the vote against.
For the socialist senator for the area, José Miguel Insulza, “the vote of the right is frankly a shame for the country, and we are going to make sure that it is known and recognized not only nationally but also internationally. We are not going to exhaust resources for that ”.
The alternatives
The organizations consider a series of options such as a presentation before the Constitutional Court, which should be specified through parliamentarians, or follow the judicial route through the presentation of protection resources. There is also the alternative of resorting to international bodies, such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. All these paths will be analyzed by the organizations in a meeting to be held this Wednesday.
“For now, we are going to ask the Comptroller’s Office to rule on this, we could even ask international organizations for a statement. I do not rule out that we go to an international instance, the consultation could be made for the respect of Convention 169 “, the Socialist deputy Luis Rocafull told El Mostrador.
For the parliamentarian, the vote was a severe blow. “I was born and raised in Arica, so I am hurt, because Afro-descendants are part of our culture, of our history, it is a worldview that perhaps is not known here, here they have always talked about the Mapuche issue, but not about the meaning, about the identity that the north has is to deny part of our history. The vote was clearly a matter of racism, discrimination ”, he indicated.
Rocafull said that he also feels “cheated also because the law that consecrates the recognition of the tribal people that gives them the same status as that of the original people was promulgated by the President of the Republic, therefore this vote means making Afro-descendants invisible” .
During the debate in the Senate, the UDI senator for the area José Durana also pointed to this issue, noting that “it is not understandable that in this constitutional reform it is privileged to give more than 40 percent to the Mapuche people over other peoples indigenous peoples and also the Afro-descendant tribal people of Chile are not considered ”.
According to Cristian Báez, “the act of racism by right-wing parliamentarians and Minister Karla Rubilar was impressive, and centralism rules, it shows that legislators from extreme areas have no power of influence.”
“We have to see if the parliamentarians will have the guts to appear before the TC, let’s see what they do. We are going to continue, we are going to prosecute, if they reject it, we are going to go to the Supreme Court. We can go to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and we have already presented a precautionary measure before this court for this situation ”, he indicated.
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