Development: On 5 January President Sebastián Piñera of Chile announced that the authorities have “reliable” evidence that a string of forest fires were started intentionally, adding that the government will invoke Chile’s anti-terrorism law to prosecute anyone found responsible.
Significance: Although Chile’s southern regions are especially prone to forest fires during the southern hemisphere summer, since late December several big fires have consumed large parts of the Maule, Biobío and Araucanía regions, destroying some 55,000 hectares (ha) of forest, causing material damages and deaths. The government, which was initially criticised for its lack of action and preparedness, appears to want to regain the initiative, not least with the suggestion that the fires were not accidental but rather a premeditated attack on the country, allegedly by separatist Mapuche groups. However, the only suspect to date is an Israeli national.
Key points:
• On 3 January, delivering an official statement about the latest fire, which started in Carahue, Araucanía, President Piñera confirmed that six brigadiers from the national forestry corporation (Conaf) had died in the blaze.
• Piñera stated, “We have reliable information that makes us presume that there is a criminal intent behind these fires”. Announcing that the government was invoking the country’s controversial anti-terrorism law to prosecute anyone found responsible, the president added, “We must combat not only the fires, but also those criminals that may be behind them”. Piñera also announced that the government would seek to invoke the state security law to prosecute those responsible for an attack on a Carabinero, and the subsequent burning of a public bus, in Santiago, on 4 January.
• Incidentally, on 4 January, the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAN), a group that seeks Mapuche vindication, claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in which a helicopter and four vehicles from the Conaf where set alight on 30 December. In a short statement divulged by the local media, CAN justified the attack as part of its efforts to commemorate the “cowardly death” of Matías Catrileo, a Mapuche student shot dead by police during a protest on 3 January 2008.
• All this has led Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter, who had previously claimed that some of the fires may harbour “political or economic intentions”, to toy publically with the idea that the CAN or other Mapuche groups might be responsible for the fires. “Soon after [the CAN attack] there were a lot of fires. Things are starting to fall into place, but I will not speculate”, Hinzpeter said. He remarked that although forest fires are expected at this time of the year, what is going on isn’t “normal”. Hinzpeter said that “premeditated fires must be sanctioned as a terrorist act”.
• This could prove bad news for Rotem Singer, an Israeli tourist whom the Chilean authorities are currently questioning in connection to a fire in the Torres del Paine national park, which started on 27 December. According to witnesses, Singer, who was visiting the park, set fire to some paper waste and then failed to put it out completely. Although, the investigation is still at a preliminary stage, Singer’s detention has triggered international reactions.
• An international Jewish human rights organisation, the Simon Wisenthal Center, formally asked the Chilean government to reprimand two local congressmen who it said referred to the case using “anti-Semitic” terms. Fuad Chahin, a national deputy for the Partido Demócrata Cristiano (DC), wrote on Twitter: “I bet that the Israeli ‘tourist’ that started the fire in the Torres del Paine is one of those sent [overseas] by his state after killing Palestinian babies”. Meanwhile, a Partido por la Democracia (PPD) senator, Eugenio Tuma, stated, “It is not normal that the Israeli government sends a military contingent to do some sightseeing in Patagonia”. In a letter of complaint, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said it found these remarks to be “clearly directed towards Jews in general”, adding that this “anti-semitic rhetoric by Chahin and Tuma abuses an ecological catastrophe, turning it into a vehicle of hate”.
Pointer: Forest fires are rife in the Southern Cone this summer. Extremely hot and dry conditions mean that small fires spread quickly. Besides those in Chile, where the Conaf estimates that there have been some 159 fires since October, there are currently blazes in the national park in Caazapa, Paraguay and in the forests of Chubut, Argentina. Coincidentally, Chubut’s governor, Martín Buzzi, also told the press on 5 January that in his opinion the fires, which have already consumed some 1,500 ha since 3 January, were started “intentionally”.
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