Both the government with the ruling party, as well as the opposition for its part, showed their letters regarding seats reserved for the indigenous world in the future body in charge of drafting the new Constitution, one of the issues that is in the air of the process constituent.
Both blocks entered indications to the project that is being processed in the Senate Constitution Commission, and they bet that their own proposals become the roadmap of the debate in the parliamentary instance.
In the opposition they maintain that their approach was built from conversations with representatives of native peoples. “This is the result of a joint effort, carried out from and with the indigenous world,” said Senator DC Francisco Huenchumilla, who entered the indication, with the signatures of Senators Alfonso De Urresti (PS), and the PPD bench, Pedro Araya and Jaime Quintana.
Various entities and organizations from the indigenous world participated in the preparation of the indication, including the Indigenous Front DC, the Indigenous Secretariat of the PS, the Indigenous Vice-presidency of the PPD, the indigenous person in charge of the PC, the Aymara National Council, the Association of Municipalities with Mapuche Mayor (Ancam) and Lafkenche Identity.
On the other hand, the ruling party managed to reach a consensus after a round of working meetings and conversations between the heads of the bloc’s benches of senators and deputies with the Minister of Social Development and Family, Karla Rubilar, and the head of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Cristián Monckeberg.
According to the RN bench chief, Sebastián Torrealba, “this is a concrete action and we are going to promote fraternal dialogue between compatriots to solve the conflicts that are pending. Always from the respect to the different visions and the spaces of understanding “.
For her part, the head of the UDI deputies, María José Hoffmann, pointed out that “the search for consensus is fundamental in order to resume the development agenda for indigenous peoples, beyond the electoral calendar. We have enormous challenges in social, employment, health, opportunity generation and examples such as that of other countries, such as New Zealand, show us that it is possible to design correct development policies for nations, which include their peoples. indigenous peoples, “in statements provided by Emol.
The differences
Both proposals have some coincidences such as the creation of a special indigenous district, but the differences are substantial.
The pro-government approach creates an indigenous electoral registry, that is, a special registry, and does not establish distribution by towns as does the opposition proposal, which contemplates fixed quotas for the nine towns recognized in the Indigenous Law: Mapuches, Aymaras, Rapa Nui, Atacameños, Quechuas, Collas, Diaguitas, Kawashkar and Yámanas.
The opposition proposal also states that voters can freely choose whether to vote for conventional representatives of their native people, having as the only reason to discern that, their self-identification.
There are also distinctions at the level of seats. In the opposition, they consider 23 positions in the case of the Constitutional Convention or 25 in the Mixed Convention. On the other hand, the official proposal establishes a number of seats according to the voters registered in the indigenous register.
The indication to the right states that the gender parity rule will apply in this Additional Indigenous District. Meanwhile, in the opposition’s proposal “it also contemplates gender parity. Thus, and for the Mapuche and Aymara peoples, in the event that the first two majorities are of the same sex, replacement mechanisms will operate, so that the underrepresented sex also has a presence ”, explained Huenchumilla.
According to Senator DC, the objective is for the opposition indication “to be the starting point and the roadmap for the discussion that is generated in Congress”, while Senator Pedro Araya (PPD) bet that “we hope that the right support this idea ”.
Senator Latorre’s proposal
Senator RD Juan Ignacio Latorre also presented indications, where he proposes that the Constitutional Convention or the Mixed Constitutional Convention, will be made up of 25 and 27 indigenous seats, respectively, with a distribution of regions in eight macrozones.
Likewise, it states that for the purposes of electing Conventional representatives of native peoples, the citizens registered in the electoral register, at the time of casting their vote for Constituent Constituents, may decide between voting for Conventional in the General Election or Conventional Peoples Representatives Original, if they so decide according to their self-identification.
It also establishes that those who are members of political parties may not be candidates for Conventional Constituents representing indigenous peoples, up to two years before the date of the closing of the declarations of candidacies.
“The constituent process can be a privileged opportunity to establish a modern relationship between the State of Chile and the indigenous peoples. In this sense, approving seats reserved for indigenous peoples may constitute the best mechanism for stable political dialogue, which opens a new opportunity, a new cycle, and a new deal to pay off the historic debt that the State of Chile has with indigenous peoples. and particularly with the Mapuche people, ”says the parliamentarian, who also proposes that there be an indigenous electoral strip and an additional reimbursement of electoral expenses for candidates for indigenous reserved seats.
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