This is strange. Chile does have a history of civilian unrest, but for the most part, that was largely during the rein of Pinochet, and even then, it was mostly Pinochet blowing things up in order to blame it on the unrest, thus giving him the excuse to maintain martial law. Even more, nearly all of the genuine unrest was centered in Santiago, and not in other cities like Temuco. I’ve also never known the Mapuche to be violent, or “extreme” in any way, especially against the Catholic Church. Apparently, there is a longer, much deeper history between the Mapuche and the Europeans than i was aware of. That’s not terribly surprising, but i’m still sorry to read of this new “era” of sabotage.
NPR interviewed a Chilean journalist this morning who said this conflict between the government and indigenous groups in the south has been going on for some time, but is basically unreported outside of the country.