As Chilean President Sebastián Piñera toured the Araucanía Region on Thursday, attending various ceremonies, Mapuche leader Aucán Huilcamán took the opportunity to demand an apology from the head of state.

Huilcamán, leader of mapuche rights group Consejo de Todas las Tierras, put his demands in a letter he hoped to present to Piñera addressing crimes committed by the Chilean government.

“Here [in the Araucanía Region] they committed the worst atrocities against the Mapuche people,” Huilcamán said Thursday morning. “They attempted genocide, they pillaged our lands and stole our livelihoods — for this they should ask forgiveness.”

Temuco, the capital of the Araucanía Region and fourth-largest city in the country, has the biggest indigenous community of any Chilean city. As of the 2002 census, 23.05 percent of the city — and also a quarter of the region’s overall population — identified as Mapuche.

Piñera was scheduled to stop in Temuco to attend a ceremony for the opening of a water storage system and the inauguration of a government building.


Various organizations including the United Nations and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have criticized the Chilean government for its handling of Mapuche relations. Often cited is the use of the anti-terrorism law, first enacted under Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The law allows for harsher penalties for crimes such as arson and destruction of property, if the government determines the perpetrators to be connected to designated terrorist organizations. It can also allow suspects to be tried in a military court and for convictions to be based on the testimony of anonymous witnesses.


“The use of extraordinary procedures, which were established in the anti-terrorism law to tackle the most extreme political violence, is wholly unjustified when dealing with crimes attributed to the Mapuche that are mostly against property,” a 2004 HRW report said.

Mapuche suspects and convicts held under this law largely consider themselves to be political prisoners, often reverting to hunger strikes to fight for this recognition.


The Chilean government set up a special anti-terrorism unit to the region after a deadly fire killed an elderly farmer and his wife in January.
Source

Flames of fire shot up into the sky while lightening danced all around when one of Chile's volcanic mountains erupted again the other day on June the 4th. This was the first time in over 50 years for the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain which is about 575 miles south of the capital of Santiago. It was not immediately sure which of the four volcanoes actually erupted though because of the extent of the ash emitted and also the weather conditions at the time. The last time one of the volcanoes in this chain erupted was in 1960.

Ash was spewed six miles up into the atmosphere of the Chilean sky and strong winds carried it over into the neighboring country of Argentina. The acrid smell of sulphur hung heavy in the air and there was constant seismic activity being reported. Airports were closed and the Chilean government had evacuated around 3500 people in the surrounding area. This was done as a precaution while the ash proceeded to heavily coat the area. The ash was so thick that one could easily mistake it for snow by it's appearance.

This eruption is just the latest in volcanic activity in recent years in Chile. In 2008, Chile's Chaiten volcano erupted in a spectacular display for the first time in thousands of years, spewing molten rock and a vast cloud of ash that was visible from outer space. Rivers were swollen and towns were coated with ash in nearby Argentina. In 2008 and 2009, Chile's Llaima volcano erupted also. Llaima is one of Chile's most active volcanoes.

Just another spectacular example of Chile's very active volcanic landscape and Mother Nature's power. Chile is second to Indonesia in the world with the number of volcanoes within it's borders. It has around 2,000 volcanoes with about 500 that are potentially active. It has been recorded that between 50-60 have erupted throughout time. When Mother Nature speaks in Chile, people are forced to pay attention.

Above cloud level the plume looks like a nuclear bomb has just exploded with its mushroom cloud bursting towards the skies- AFP-GETTY Images

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy