When I lived in Chile more than a decade ago, I was struck by the how still fresh and raw the Pinochet dictatorship felt. I went there to study Chile’s rise post Pinochet and the discourse was based on the Southern Cone nation’s economic success. This success was of course based on capitalism and the growth of business meanwhile in one Santiago’s ritziest areas, Providencia, children begged for food outside U.S. chain fast food joints. Once I moved south to Temuco and surrounding areas, I witnessed the discrimination against the Mapuche population and the colorism against anyone who looked “indio”, including the Mapuche father of my first child. Now with a socialist, female president, Chile still has a long way to go according to the head of Amnesty International.

Concluding a one-week visit to Chile on Friday, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Irene Khan issued an assessment of the human rights situation in the country and a set of recommendations addressed to the Chilean government.

“Despite some positive steps taken by successive democratic governments in the last 18 years, Chile’s record on human rights leaves much room for improvement,” said Ms. Khan.

“We call on President Bachelet to use the remaining 17 months of her time in office to create a decisive and lasting legacy of human rights reform.”

Chile, like many parts of South America and Latin America in general suffers from a racial identity crisis steeped in notions of white privilege and access to that. It’s roots are colonial and its what allowed my own mother for so many years to claim us as “white Ricans” and what caused well meaning Colombians to assure me that my newborn MapucheRican would “lighten up” as she got older.

In Chile, the supremacy plays out around the issues of land and who knows best how to manage it, people who have lived off the earth for generations, or investors both local and foreign using the language of environmentalism to steal land.

Recent municipal elections in Chile are showing a move to the right of the political spectrum and the leader in many polls for the next presidential election in Chile is a wealthy business owner which does not bode well for the Indigenous communities.

Via / The Latin Americanist

Image Via / Valpo IMC