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Forestry Contractors Demand Permanent Action Against Violence in the Southern Macrozone
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In a context marked by the armed attack on the night of Saturday, August 23, against two forestry guards in Victoria, which resulted in one death and left another with serious injuries; by the arson attack on a worksite on the route between Carahue and Nueva Imperial, which in the early hours of the same day destroyed five machines and for which the government filed a complaint under the Anti-Terrorism Law; and by the start today of the trial against Mapuche community member Alejandro Liguen, linked to the Mapuche Malleco Resistance group and accused of the homicide of PDI prefect Luis Morales Balcázar in Temucuicui in January 2021, the Minister of Defense, Adriana Delpiano, through her account on social media platform X, confirmed an increased military deployment in the southern macrozone. "The Armed Forces have already begun an increase in territorial control operations," detailed the minister.
Through the same platform, Delpiano announced that the acting head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Division General Lionel Curti, was in La Araucanía between Thursday and Saturday, both to support the requirements of the head of National Defense in the area and to "propose new strategies for territorial deployment."
It was a "trip I instructed to reinforce the joint work of the police and local authorities," she said.
Meanwhile, General Curti confirmed that, after an evaluation with the Army's planning team, "an increase in territorial control operations related to the security of critical points, massive patrols, and integration with aerial and police resources has been implemented."
Permanent Evaluation of Strategies
In turn, the head of National Defense for the state of emergency in La Araucanía, Army Brigadier General Alejandro Moreno, assured that they are developing "a permanent process of evaluation of each of our strategies" and that "the perception of security is constant at the regional level and not only in more complex places."
"A Reaction to Recent Attacks"
René Muñoz, manager of the Association of Forestry Contractors, an organization that has been the target of 16 attacks this year, including those in Victoria and Carahue, considers the measures "clearly a reaction by the authorities to the recent attacks in the southern macrozone."
The representative of the guild, which has recorded 512 attacks on companies in the sector since 2014, stated that "we want the Armed Forces to become more involved in controlling terrorism and violence in the area."
For the same reason, he argued that "we do not want them to be just measures in response to specific events, but rather a permanent action that attacks the roots of the problem."
According to Muñoz, "if this is not a long-term plan, a few weeks will pass and we will return to the current control measures, which are not sufficient for what is happening."
Trial in Angol and Possible Retaliation
Regarding the new tensions that the start of the trial in Angol against the accused in the homicide of detective Morales could provoke in the area, Muñoz expressed that "whenever there are trials against individuals involved in terrorist acts, reactions from these armed groups occur, so it cannot be ruled out now."
For this reason, he urged the Executive to "deploy a permanent, methodical, planned action in the southern macrozone, where the necessary resources are allocated. Otherwise, it will only be a patch solution," he emphasized.
Evaluate Capabilities
The president of the Association of Victims of Rural Violence, Alejo Apraiz, said that "while it is important that the Armed Forces are always evaluating their capabilities to react and improve," he warned that "the political authority must also grant greater powers to the head of National Defense."
He stressed that "not much is achieved with more controls if there are zero or few faculties."
Source:El Mercurio
