A group claiming to represent the interests of Chile’s Mapuche people has attacked a salmon farm construction site.
As a result of the accident, a crane truck and a number of drilling rigs were completely destroyed.
A public statement was sent yesterday to the website Werken.cl from the Mapuche group who are called Coordinator Arauco Malleco (CAM) claiming responsibility for the sabotage. The arson attack was carried out on Sunday July 22.
The site is located in the Mune Bajo sector, in the commune of Pitrufquen, region of La Araucanía, central Chile, around 325km north of Puerte Montt – the epicentre of Chile’s salmon farming industry.
It’s not know yet which parts of the salmon farm were being constructed there.
ORT de la CAM se adjudica acción de sabotaje contra piscicultura perteneciente a SalmónChile en Pitrufquen https://t.co/td3uzxjTxW pic.twitter.com/C0kFLGrBZs
— El Porteño (@elporteno2016) July 25, 2018
In the letter, CAM states that the attack is part of the frontal struggle “against capitalist investments of forestry, mining and hydroelectric that seek to depredate the Mapuche territory, particularly the Toltén river”.
In the statement also points out that the mayor of the commune, Jorge Jaramillo, isn’t stopping the construction of the mega project, adding that “the Chilean state responds to the interests of capitalism and its market.”
Coordinator Arauco-Malleco or (CAM) is a Mapuche political organisation of an indigenous nature who carry out various sabotage actions by which some sectors have controversially granted them a terrorist group. Founded in 1998 CAM sometimes uses violent actions as a legitimate political tool to achieve its political project, which is the claim, recovery and independence of its ancestral territories of the Mapuche people over the jurisdiction of the State of Chile.
