Last week, the Argentine government blamed a fire that consumed more than 7,000 acres of a Patagonian national park following an arson attack by an armed indigenous group known as the Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche (RAM).
The Mapuche, an indigenous community that has lived for generations in territory now owned by Argentina and Chile, have long been at odds with governments and businesses, often over land rights, environmental concerns and fears. of forced assimilation.
Despite the presence of Mapuche Christians, for several years members of groups like Weichán Auca Mapu (WAM) and Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) targeted many churches. The number of congregations burned reached more than 80. The government struggled to arrest and prosecute the attackers.
But after several intense years of terror, the situation seems to be improving little by little.
“We will continue to bear witness to the Gospel,” Abelino Apeleo, Anglican bishop of Araucania and also of Mapuche origin, said in 2017 at the heart of the situation. “We must apply the teachings of Jesus: forgive, have mercy and love our enemies. At some point, they may need our help, and we will be there for them.
Answered prayers?
In 2016, Elías Fuentealba witnessed WAM limbs are burning the small Pentecostal church he pastored in Niagara, a town in the southern division of Araucania.
“On the day of the arson, we gathered and prayed outside the church: ‘Lord, you give and you take away. Blessed be your name,’” Fuentealba told CT. “When we finished praying, the police told us that nearby they had arrested suspects of the crime.”
The five armed men were accused of being members of WAM; at that point, the group had already claimed responsibility for several arson attacks against Catholic and evangelical churches and schools in the Araucanía region. WAM attacks on churches were often accompanied by demands, even if most congregations were unable to respond, such as the release of Mapuche prisoners or the return of Mapuche lands, annexed by the Chilean government in the 19th century.
The arrest of the Niagara suspects was the only such intervention in any church arson case and these actions initially emboldened Fuentealba’s flock. But the government failed to pursue prosecutions as harshly as Fuentealba would have liked; he dropped the terrorism charges and sentenced only two of the five people initially arrested to ten years in prison for “simple arson”.
In 2021, after serving only two years in prison, they were granted early parole.
“We are law-abiding people, but it was difficult to realize that the government was only meeting with the perpetrators of the crimes and that justice was not working for us, the victims,” said Fuentealba, who added that he and some church members had been threatened and intimidated. during the trial.
“Because it’s foreign.”
Araucania, in southern Chile, has the highest percentage Mapuche (a quarter of all those over 14) from one of Chile’s 16 regions. For more than 300 years, the Mapuche controlled the southern bank of the country’s second largest river, the Biobío, which runs through the region. With the exception of a few Franciscan missions, which were widely accepted by the natives during the Spanish period of this region, the Mapuche avoided Western colonization until Chile gained its independence in 1818. When the new government sought control more centralized, it began to forcibly assimilate and displace many members of the community.
While the majority of Mapuche converted to Catholicism in the past, evangelicals today represent 35 percent population, largely due to the efforts of 19th-century Anglican and Methodist missionaries, who provided health care, education and the gospel to indigenous communities. Many also converted following the Chilean Pentecostal movement in the early 1900s.
While most Mapuche live peacefully among non-indigenous Chileans, WAM and CAM have led various protests against land occupation, roadblocks, and attacks on logging companies, including burning machinery. But in 2016, their targets became churches which, beyond their religious purposes, also often served as schools, meeting places and shelters for those fleeing natural disasters. Many belonged to the poorest sectors of the poorest region of Chile and were frequented by the Mapuche themselves.
“What they want is territorial control,” Patricio Santibáñez, president of the Araucanía professional association, told CT. “They don’t want the children to go to school, so they burn the schools. They don’t want people to go to church, so they burn churches. It’s about subjugating the population of this region.
The Institute for Economy and Peace class Chile ranks 17th in its 2023 Global Terrorism Index.
“To measure the severity of the conflict in this area, we are talking about at least 25 very serious criminal acts per month. Sometimes we reach almost 60 people,” said Santibáñez.
Many Mapuche believe they are the rightful owners of the land that now belongs to companies and the government. They are also unhappy with what they see as a relentless infiltration of foreign culture, which has coincided with the decline of traditional Mapuche identity.
According to community leaders, many of these tensions came to a head in 2015, when the government forcibly evicted a Mapuche community occupying land belonging to a Catholic monastery near Lake Budi. In retaliation for this, “(the radicals) began to say: We will burn all the churches!” Fuentealba said. “But there is also a deeper problem, in which evangelical Christians are sometimes seen as enemies of traditional Mapuche culture.”
Christian leaders often prohibited Mapuche converts from participating in indigenous religious practices or ceremonies and openly condemned cultural aspects that they believed endorsed the occult or violated the Bible. Although these measures were intended to help new Christians grow in their faith, many Mapuche who clung to their traditional beliefs saw these restrictions as a division of their community and a separation of Mapuche Christians from their heritage.
For radical Mapuche groups, anything that comes from the outside is considered an “invasion” of their culture, religion and territory, said Joel Millanguir, a Mapuche Christian who serves as Anglican bishop of Araucanía.
“They see the Gospel as an intrusion; and because it is foreign, they reject it,” he said. “Those leading these attacks are a new generation of Mapuche leaders who ignore the enormous work that the churches have done in this area.”
This polarization has made it more difficult for Mapuche Christians to practice their faith and participate in their culture.
“Churches are based in Mapuche communities where terrorist groups operate,” said Stephan Schubert, an evangelical in Chile’s Chamber of Deputies whose district represents part of Araucanía. “This has helped contain some of the most extreme violence, but it poses a challenge for those who are evangelical Christians because they do not engage in some of their pagan practices. »
But not all the animosity toward Christians is unjustified, said Omar Cortés, a former Protestant pastor who now heads the National Office of Religious Affairs.
Christian organizations have a “burden of colonization” and a “history of demonization” of Mapuche spirituality.
“Radicalized groups seeking to draw more attention to their demands are resorting to attacks on churches,” he explained.
‘Face to face’
Santibáñez currently sees a parallel between the situation in his country and that of other Latin American countries.
“I find similarities with what happened in Colombia, with the FARC. Ideologically, this also resembles the extremism of Bright trail in Peru. But eventually it gets mixed up with organized crime, like drug trafficking, wood theft, animal trafficking and vehicle theft,” Santibáñez said.
In response to these attacks, the federal government declared a state of emergency in Araucania and dispatched soldiers to guard the main roads. Santibáñez points out that in recent years crimes related to land seizure have decreased significantly.
“But no armed attacks or arson,” he added.
Nevertheless, Chile has never appeared on Open Doors Global Watchlist, which identifies the top countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. And in recent years, although protests and violence have generally continued, attacks on churches have become much less frequent, thanks to the mediation of Christian leaders. The latest arson attack in a church in Araucania occurred in August last year, when a group started a fire that destroyed many neighborhoods in a city.
Yet despite the overall decrease in attacks, “very few people have been arrested and convicted,” said Millanguir, the Anglican bishop.
Schubert would like the Chilean National Congress to devote more money to security in Araucanía.
“We are facing a violation of the human right to freedom of religion,” he said. “And the Chilean state has done almost nothing to prevent this. »
Regional funds allocated from the national budget for victims of terrorism can be used to rebuild churches, says Cortés of the National Office of Religious Affairs. But that was not the case for the Fuentealba Pentecostal Church in Niagara, which instead relied on funds from community members and international Christian organizations to rebuild it, which it sought to do immediately.
“We made sure that our new building was made entirely of strong, fire-resistant materials,” Fuentealba told CT.
And despite the terror of 2016, he says his congregation was not frightened by the violence.
“We don’t hate them,” he said, referring to the Mapuche attackers. “We want them to convert and one day speak to them about Christ face to face. »
