INVESTING IN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S TERRITORIES, A NEW FORM OF ETHNOCIDE? THE MAPUCHE CASE

Abstract

On 6th of March 1997, the President of the Republic of Chile, Eduardo Frei, inaugurated the hydroelectric dam of Pangue. This plant is the first phase of a mega-project which will involve the construction of six dams in the Bio-Bio River in the heart of ancestral territory of the Mapuche. The inauguration was accompanied by protests from political personalities inside and outside the country, ecological groupings, indigenous organizations, political parties, and international organizations. What at first glance may be considered as yet another one of those controversial dam constructions – situations that nowadays are occurring on all continents – in reality is a step in a sophisticated project of ethnicide on the Mapuche people which has been inherited from the Pinochet dictatorship.

Citation

Calbucura, J. (2003), "INVESTING IN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S TERRITORIES, A NEW FORM OF ETHNOCIDE? THE MAPUCHE CASE", Bell, M.M. and Hendricks, F. (Ed.) Walking Towards Justice: Democratization in Rural Life (Research in Rural Sociology and Development, Vol. 9), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 229-255. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-1922(03)09013-9