Seventeen vehicles were set on fire early on Sunday (March 12) in an attack authorities say may be linked to an ongoing dispute between Mapuche Indians and landowners.
According to local police colonel Juan Pablo Dueto, several hooded suspects entered a local parking lot for company trucks just south of the central city of Temuco in Chile. The lot contained some 60 vehicles from various businesses.
“This occurred when an indeterminate number of hooded, armed subjects entered. They intimidated the guard that was in the area and then threw accelerants on the trucks that were inside the lot,” he told reporters.
Dueto said the suspects were armed and set fire to 17 trucks and and an outbuilding on the property.
Police are investigating and have not identified any suspects as yet. They said a Mapuche flag was found at the scene, but are not saying the Mapuche were behind the attack.
Authorities said that investigators are still evaluating the damage.
An ongoing ancestral land dispute in the area has pitted the Mapuche Indian farmers against the forestry industry and landowners and has led to violence and deaths in recent years.
Many Mapuche, famous for their fierce resistance to the Spanish conquest, say they were robbed by the Chilean government’s often brutal colonization policy in the 19th century.
(REUTERS)
