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Another Government Passes and Violence Continues to Rise

Sponsors

After eight years of two governments of different political leanings—one center-left and the other center-right—we have come to understand that, from both sides, there is no willingness to confront or bear the political cost of working to end the terrorist violence plaguing the regions of Biobío, La Araucanía, Los Ríos, and Los Lagos.

From our ongoing concern over what continues to happen, from our exhaustion, helplessness, and abandonment after so long without answers from an indifferent State, we ask: Is it so difficult to sit down and talk, to engage in dialogue among all stakeholders—authorities, local communities, trade groups, and all those connected to these territories? Does it benefit the country to maintain this lack of intention to change things, while violence, murders, and land seizures under armed threat increase, leaving the entire field open to crime, marijuana and drug trafficking, and the use of high-caliber weapons? The truth and the conclusion these eight years leave us with is that we have been governed by incapable and irresponsible authorities who see no further than their own interests, indifferent to what happens in the south of the country.

It’s hard to understand that the State lacks tools it could use, or that the three branches that compose it—Executive, Legislative, and Judicial—fail to defend the greater good for all Chileans: growth, the development of the country, and the well-being of its inhabitants, remaining instead tied to their petty conveniences and interests.

The rise in violence has recently begun to threaten the lives and safety of forestry workers, going beyond the destruction of work equipment. In 2022 alone, we mourn the murders of three forestry workers: César Millahual on January 18 in Cañete, and Benjamín Bustos and Alejandro Carrasco on February 20 in Carahue.

This surge in armed violence is also starkly evident over the past eight years: 73% of the 340 attacks on forestry workers and contractors between 2014 and 2022—that is, 248 violent incidents—occurred during this period. Last year also saw the month with the highest number of attacks: September 2021, with 11 arson attacks.

The attacks in the southern macrozone, spanning from Biobío to Los Lagos, have severely impacted the work and livelihoods of 244 forestry contractors. A numerical estimate shows that 24,000 forestry workers and their families have suffered the effects of violence from criminal groups and illicit associations that operate freely in these regions. There is fear of going out to work and fear of working in the forests, which is why many companies no longer carry out forestry operations or travel certain roads in areas now controlled and isolated by criminal groups.

The forestry sector has been declared war upon by coordinated organizations aiming to instill fear. In this logic, 917 pieces of forestry equipment and trucks have been destroyed in four years, and conflict zones have expanded to 49 municipalities in Biobío, La Araucanía, Los Ríos, and Los Lagos—46% of that territory, 35 more municipalities than were affected up to 2018.

The facts and figures are undeniable: in the southern regions of the country, there is no rule of law, institutions do not function, and residents must continue enduring the violent actions of terrorist groups that face no opposition or control from the State. A new political cycle has begun. As forestry contractors, we hope the new government develops a different plan, one that emerges from the territories and their local stakeholders. We hope it has the courage and bravery to seek dialogue, stop organized political crime, and restore peace and safe work to these regions that so desperately long for it.