CRITICAL JUNTURE OF NEGOTIATION BETWEEN THE STATE OF CHILE AND THE MAPUCHE PEOPLE-NATION

Abstract

The study responds to a current review of the Mapuche conflict, the oldest between a State and an indigenous people in Latin America, which has intensified since 1997 with an increase in indigenous empowerment in favor of self-determination, the demand for constitutional recognition and the return of land and resources for its own development policy. The critical juncture of high social and territorial conflict in Chile has polarized indigenous autonomist positions, while the State insists on a welfare and neo-productivist strategy without political negotiation or plurinational recognition in the Constitution. On its part, the Mapuche movement, which shares its rejection of the Chilean state policy, displays several groups that promote different strategies and agendas, not always complementary and synergistic ones. The results obtained show that the relations promoted by governments in terms of assistance, security and symbolic participation policies have not been effective, that the neo-productive model, based on income and monoculture as a development strategy, does not match the cosmovision of the Mapuche people. On the other hand, the different Mapuche political, community and identity groups fail to coincide with a single model of self-government, which suggests that any negotiation must be flexible in recognizing the confederal reality of the main indigenous nation in Chile.