It was in the area plagued by the conflict with the Mapuche radicals. War ammunition was discovered on the site
By
Cristián Torresfrom Santiago, Chile
The worker Segundo Catril Neculqueo.
A forestry worker was murdered in the south of Chile in the area subjected to daily violence by radical Mapuche groups.
The victim was identified as Segundo Catril Neculqueo, 66 years old, who was shot in the head after an armed attack was unleashed in southern Chile in the region of La Araucanía. The attack occurred when at least 30 forestry workers were traveling on a busof which three were injured.
The death of this worker has brought back the problem of La Araucanía to the political and public sphere of Chile with a series of reactions from different actors. President Gabriel Boric expressed his full solidarity with the worker, adding that “we will not tolerate violence being imposed as a method of conflict resolution in our country, neither in schools, nor in La Araucanía, neither in the north, nor here.”
Anyway, the attack on forestry workers has brought into public debate the living conditions of the communes and towns where these attacks take place, an issue that is always obscured due to the fires and States of Exception in between.
Lumaco, between poverty and abandonment
The funeral of Pablo Marchant, a member of the CAM killed by Carabineros de Chile in 2021, took place in the town of Lumaco. REUTERS/Juan Gonzalez
Lumaco is a commune in the La Araucania, epicenter of the historic conflict between the Chilean State and the Mapuches. It is located 618 kilometers south of Santiago de Chile, and according to the news portal Emol.com, has 10,000 inhabitants and half do not have access to basic services.
As of December 2020, 47% of the population of Lumaco suffered from deficiencies in basic services, exceeding the national average by 33% and 21 % to the region of La Araucanía. That year it was identified that 18% of its population lived in overcrowded conditionsand that 47.1% of its inhabitants are immersed in multidimensional poverty due to lack of access to education, health, and 33.3% experience income poverty.
Living and administrative conditions are so bad that the municipality of Lumaco, led by Mayor Richard Leonelli, is thinking of auctioning off machinery to fix roads and obtain resources. “The most dramatic thing, and we raised it with the undersecretary, is that the mayor is looking at the possibility of auctioning off machinery to repair the roads and thus have some resources and be able to get ahead,” said Deputy Juan Carlos Beltrán to Emol.com.
The commune of Lumaco has security problems because it is located in the middle of the entire Mapuche conflict. According to the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention, in 2019 Lumaco had a rate of 1,227.2 complaints per 100,000 inhabitants for crimes of greater social connotation. The Multigremial of La Araucanía reported that the violent acts in this place went from 45 in a State of Exception to 122 when this resource was not present.
Ammo and Plot
Héctor Llaitul, the werkén or spokesperson for the Arauco Malleco Coordinator (CAM), speaks during an interview with Efe on October 9, 2021 in the surroundings of the southern city of Carahue, located in the Araucanía region (Chile). EFE/José Caviedes
Going back to the case of the worker killed in the middle of an armed attack in southern Chile, the authorities that are investigating this death reported the discovery of war ammunitionat the event site. What was found would be a 7.62 ammunition that was fired from a rifle, 16 shell casings from a 12-gauge shotgun and a 9-mm pistol.
On the other hand, BioBioChile published information detailing a “plot surrounding” Lumaco’s armed attack against the 30 workers. According to the media, this would have occurred in the midst of “ideological quarrels” generated by an agreement between the contractorof the workers identified as Santo Reinao and the CMPC companies, a forestry and paper holding company that operates in the sector.
The agreement involves Fundo Choque, a property that “is under agreement between the communities surrounding Lake Lleu Lleu and La Papelera” for its partial reforestation of native forest. The attacked workers went to that place to carry out these tasks.
Although the agreement is highlighted as a “solution in the midst of problems that have dragged on for at least a decade in the place”, and that it has helped to generate jobs, the figure of the Reinao contractor and the deal itself with the forestry company would have generated “mistrust in the most radical groups that operate in the territory.” The annoyance with Reinao would have reached such a point that Héctor Llaitul, leader of the radical Mapuche group Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM), blamed him for perpetrating an attack against a team of Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) in La Araucanía. in 2021.