ABC News Discovers Indigenous Fears, Omits Indigenous Resistance
The story surfaces Indigenous fears, which are valid, given Chile's fraught history of land dispossession and state violence against the Mapuche. Yet, ABC's narrative framing centers on a 'political turn' as if the historical oppression isn't a continuous process, simply intensified by right-wing shifts. This mirrors how mainstream outlets often cover indigenous struggles—focusing on present-day
anxieties without deeply unpacking the systemic historical injustices, fueled by extractive industries, that created them. For instance, the Pacific Rim Mining Corp and forestry companies have faced decades of Mapuche resistance, a context often absent from such portrayals. One might wonder if the 'fear of a far-right turn' becomes more palatable than highlighting the consistent struggle against
corporate appropriation of ancestral lands, regardless of who holds nominal political power. It's almost as if the media prefers hand-wringing over an election when the real conflict is a perpetual war for resources. How many 'centuries of conflict' can be divorced from who profit from the land?