Indigenous peoples will protest their exclusion from the Chilean constitutional process

Only two of the 350 candidates for the Constitutional Council in this Sunday’s elections are Mapuche, unlike the previous process when there were 17 seats reserved for indigenous communities.

Their chances of being elected are slim because they would need 196,000 votes, while other applicants could be selected with 25,000 or 30,000.

The most likely scenario is that no indigenous people are elected, which would violate international treaties currently in force, such as Convention No. 169 of the International Labor Organization, said candidate Alihuen Antilo, a jurist and chair of the Mapuche political platform.

Indigenous communities do not have a presence on the committee of experts responsible for drafting the Basic Law proposal, nor on the technical admissibility committee.

On May 7, more than 15 million Chileans will be called to the polls to elect the 50 members of the Constitutional Council who will prepare and approve the draft Basic Law, which will be put to a referendum on December 17.

Another Mapuche candidate, Julio Marilio, a professor and educational leader at the University of Chile, warned that if his people are completely excluded after the election, they will make appeals to international organizations.

According to the 2017 census, about 2 million 186 thousand people declared themselves as members of an indigenous people, which is 12.8 percent of the total population.

According to ILO Convention No. 169, adopted in 1989 and ratified by Chile in 2008, the state must ensure respect and protection of the human rights of indigenous peoples.

He is also obliged to ensure equal opportunities, effective participation and preservation of their culture, traditions and territories, as well as prior consultation on matters affecting them.

poem / car