Harboe asks that Mapuches not be stigmatized after recent attack in Vilcún

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SANTIAGO.- While speaking out against the incident, Undersecretary Felipe Harboe of the Interior Ministry has avoided blaming the Mapuche community for the most recent truck attack, which occurred near Vilcún, in the IX Araucanía Region.

"I don't believe it is fair to stigmatize the Mapuche community, this is a violent minority.  Everybody witnessed how in the past truck burnings were attributed to the Mapuche community and it turned out that the suspects were actually people who had nothing to do with them", stated Harboe.

Nevertheless, Harboe stressed that "whoever it was" that carried out the attack will be held criminally responsible.

When asked about whether or not the government had hoped that the frequency of such incidents would decrease after signing an agreement with Mapuche activist Patricia Troncoso, Harboe insisted that this "had no influence" on what had occurred.

"With or without the agreement, there is a violent minority carrying out these attacks and we are going to continue to search for them, as long as it takes", he stated.