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The Endless Road

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The days, months, and years pass inexorably, as do the attacks on forestry operations. It has been almost nine years of enduring this, and the exhaustion from the hazardous working conditions continues to haunt us, preventing us from moving forward.
As a guild, we need to press ahead with new work proposals, developing technology and innovating in our processes and in how we interact with the environment and local communities. We also need to make progress in improving the contractual relationships between contractors and principal companies, as well as in modifying the legal regulations that govern us. These should be our normal activities as a Trade Association, but unfortunately, we must repeatedly endure the risks in our work, the conflict, the violence, and the death that dominate the atmosphere in the productive forests of the southern regions.
The Association of Forestry Contractors has become a hostage to violence—it is inherent to the work we do, and sadly, we cannot separate ourselves from it. It is not normal for us to grow accustomed to living with the dangers and risks to the lives of forestry workers or to the destruction of cutting-edge technology in which contractors have invested to achieve productivity levels that allow us, as a sector, to compete with the most important forestry countries in the world.
This year, 2022, César Millahual, Benjamín Cuevas, Alejandro Carrasco, and Segundo Catril, all forestry workers, were murdered in their workplaces, in the forest. They and their families are the silent witnesses of an irrational violence that overwhelms and crushes us. They are the martyrs of this undeclared war on the timber industry, which remains unchecked. They are the silent witnesses of a state that, cowardly and irresponsibly, has abandoned the inhabitants of this part of the country—those who seek, through legal and formal work, a path to improve their quality of life and that of their families.
In the face of these reprehensible actions, we ask ourselves: Do the lives of these workers hold a different value than other lives? Why does the state as a whole delay and prolong an effective solution to a historic demand of the Mapuche people? Would eliminating the forestry industry—thus yielding to the wishes of terrorist organizations seeking to establish illicit activities in these territories—be a rational solution for the country?
Many argue that the violence in the south has deep roots and that there is an unresolved historical issue of "territorial reclamation," but few want to acknowledge that these just demands have been twisted and exploited by terrorist and anarchist groups who, under this rhetoric, use violence and terror to maintain lucrative businesses in drugs, arms trafficking, timber theft, handling stolen vehicles, and cattle rustling.
We hold onto hope that the new authorities will address this serious problem with the gravity it deserves. Based on our experience over these years, we believe it is necessary to open dialogue with representatives validated by the communities and with accurate information about the disputed territories. Likewise, we must plan strategies to counter the violence we have grown accustomed to enduring. We demand that lawmakers make the necessary legislative changes to provide prosecutors with new legal tools to investigate and prosecute those who are part of the well-known terrorist organizations. It is also crucial to incorporate local and regional development projects, as well as to support the Police and Armed Forces from all institutions—but, above all, the political will of the current government to solve a problem that has persisted for many years.
We forestry contractors want to reach the end of this road. We want to return to working in peace and safety, continuing to build a better country through forestry and timber.