SANTIAGO – The Chilean Public Ministry has imposed Anti-Terror Law in the southern region of La Araucanía following incendiary attacks occurred lately.
On Friday, hooded men shot drivers of two trucks and set fire to five other vehicles in the municipalities of Ercilla and Victoria, some 580 kilometers south of Santiago, according to police reports.
There was one injured, five trucks burned down and two others with bullet impacts, in what is presumed to be related to the Mapuche conflict in the area, since in both sites were found pamphlets related to their cause.
Local media reported that unknown people attacked a truck of Transol company, which was carrying propane and butane gas and also a vehicle carrying lime.
The president of the National Confederation of Freight Transport, Sergio Pérez, deplored that the attacks took place after the visit to the region of the Interior Undersecretary Mahmud Aleyui, who inaugurated surveillance cameras on the roads.
Problems such as these often occur in the southern part of Chile, due to the demands of some indigenous communities for land ownership, which they consider ancestral and legally belong to agricultural or forest companies.
Mapuche comuneros, farmers and policemen have died past confrontations and government attempts to mediate in search of solutions have not bear fruit so far.
