Reserved seats for the mapuche in the Constitutional Convention: an institutional gap thanks to the revolt

Abstract

In 2020 Chile found itself immersed in the most important institutional debate since the end of the dictatorship: the constitutional plebiscite that enabled the calling of elections for a Constitutional Convention. This article will focus on analyzing the debates and actions of the Mapuche actors during 2020 in relation to the Chilean constituent process and, in particular, to the possibility of institutionalizing reserved seats for indigenous peoples for the first time in the country's history. For this, the work will be divided into two main sections. In the first section we will study the consequences of the “social revolt” and the different positions that arose in the Mapuche movement and population in relation to the institutional window of opportunity that the constituent debate meant. In the second part, we will focus on the rules of the game emanating from Congress, with which the Mapuche candidates and organizations that want to participate in the constitutional process must comply. In an associated way, we will present a brief characterization of the candidates and demands that have emerged in this process, trying to show if there are any kind of links with the historical demands raised by the Mapuche movement.