Below is an article published by The Santiago Times:

Police arrested 13 people Tuesday [13 February 2007] after dispersing a group of about 50 Mapuche protesters who had occupied a section of the Lican Ray resort town (Region IX), claiming that the land had been illegally seized by the government in the 1940’s. Later in the afternoon, five more individuals were arrested during protests against police action earlier in the day.

The indigenous protesters claim the land as “sacred” and say the area is part of the ancestral lands that they have struggled for years to reclaim from the Chilean government. During the occupation, the demonstration leaders demanded the presence of President Bachelet, who is currently on vacation.

Land takeovers have become a common tactic used by some in the Chile’s indigenous communities to protest what they believe is the unfair distribution of land going back generations in rural areas of the country. This particular protest was carried out by members of communities near Lake Calafquén who have been demanding the return of their ancestral land from the Ministry of National Property.

The protesters claim the land was snatched from their community in the 1940s when the government “bought” the property and never paid for it.

According to the Mapuche community, the land, 130 hectares, belonged to Juan Manuel Loncopán and eight of his family members. In 1940, the land was chosen to be the location of the town of Calafquén and, in 1944, the deed for the land was transferred to the Property Registry of the Public Lands Conservator of Valdivia. No money changed hands between the original owners and the government.

Cautín province governor Yolanda Pérez called the occupation an “illegal act.” She said that her office, and the Ministry of National Property, have tried to negotiate with the community in the past and never been able to reach an agreement.