Mapuche Indigenous people in Chile take down symbols of Spanish colonization

RAEL’S COMMENT:

Excellent! It should be done everywhere!

Chileans have been taking to the streets around the country to protest economic inequality and a democratic system set up after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet that many say is not responding to people’s needs.

Indigenous Mapuche protesting in Temuco, a city 420 miles south of the capital of Santiago, last week tore down several statues of Spanish conquistadors and Chilean national heroes that dotted the city’s downtown area.

During a day of demonstrations called by Mapuche Indigenous organizations, a large group of demonstrators wearing traditional Mapuche ponchos stood around the bust of Pedro de Valdivia, a Spaniard who led the colonization of Chile in the 1500s, cheering on hooded men who lassoed Valdivia’s bust and yanked it onto the ground.

Then, they stomped the statue and beat it with sticks.

Local press reported that conservative analysts called the destruction of the monuments an act of vandalism.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-11-07/mapuche-indigenous-people-chile-take-down-symbols-spanish-colonization?fbclid=IwAR2FwHt_RDYSSwspNKMHcMjmhMgj9fAnwHIo5v2zWZf6gOsdW2GEOBdUvjo