Leaders of the Mapuche people are challenging the legitimacy and usefulness of the First National Consultation of Indigenous Peoples that the national government has extended to Mar. 2. “They are fooling the people and they aren't going to achieve anything,” Enrique Antileo, spokesperson for the Mapuche organization Meli Wixán Mapu, told Tierramérica.

“We can't dialog when there is repression against our people and when our (territorial and political) rights aren't recognized,” he said.

The initiative promoted by the Michelle Bachelet government is part of its policy towards a “social pact for a multicultural” country, and Convention 169, on indigenous rights, of the International Labor Organization, which enters into force in Chile on Sep. 15.

Approximately seven percent of the Chilean population is indigenous. Of that total, 19 percent are living in poverty.