President announces recommendations from the Commission for Peace and Understanding to resolve Indigenous land issues

Event Summary

In June 2023, the government of Chile led by Gabriel Boric, installed the Commission for Peace and Understanding,  as it was promised in his presidential program. This organism finalized its work on 30 April 2025. It was meant to be a transversal instance whose purpose was to advise the President to build and consolidate long-term solutions to the territorial problem with the indigenous peoples in the regions of Biobío, La Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos. One of the objectives of the Commission was to promote a process of dialogue and agreements with the different sectors involved on the basis of a consolidated diagnosis, in order to arrive at a consensus that would socially and politically legitimize viable proposals to address the land conflict and the issue of reparations and establish a new relationship between the State of Chile and the Mapuche people. The results of the Commission were presented on 6 May to the President and on 22 May the measures that the government was going to implement based on the findings of the report were announced. This report contained 21 recommendations grouped into five main areas: 

1. Constitutional recognition: Proposal for a reform to recognise indigenous peoples in the Constitution.  
2. Land restitution: Creation of a new Reparation Agency with a fund estimated at 4,000 million dollars for the return of land. 
3. Comprehensive reparation: Implementation of a reparation law for all victims of violence, both Mapuche and non-Mapuche.
4. Territorial development: Proposals to foster economic and social development in affected regions.  
5. Implementation mechanisms: Establishment of a Peoples’ Council and other institutions to ensure the implementation of recommendations.

The process itself involved the participation of more than 5,000 people, including Mapuche communities, farmers, foresters, productive associations and victims of rural violence. The report was approved by seven of the eight commissioners, reflecting broad consensus, though not unanimity. There is now a big legislative and program implementation to be carried on.

This event comes from the ongoing work and discussion of the indigenous situation, mainly in the south of Chile. The work of the Commission, as mentioned above, started in 2023. Not only this, but since 2019 and the massive social protests of that period, the demand of indigenous people has been positioned in the public agenda.  It started a conversation about a reconfiguration of Chile as a Plurinational and Intercultural State, as well as the recognition of their collective rights, especially the right to territory and self-determination. Nevertheless, different situations of conflict and violence have been persistent during the last few years. Importantly, not all of these incidents involve Indigenous peoples directly, nor do they necessarily have their support. For the same reason, there has been a constitutional state of emergency since 2022 in the region of the Araucanía and the provinces of Arauco and Biobío in the Biobío region. This has implied a large and permanent deployment of the Armed Forces in the area for security and control reasons. It is estimated that, in this area, the number of violent incidents reached 498 in 2024, a decrease of 69.2% compared to 2021, with 1,616 cases. This, however, at the cost of a militarization of the area and the reduction of citizen mobility at times.