Two members of the Chilean indigenous Mapuche community were killed and three more were injured in clashes with Carabineros, Chile's security forces, Interior Minister Rodrigo Delgado said on Thursday.
On Tuesday, President Sebastian Pinera asked Congress to extend the state of emergency in the Biobio and La Araucania regions amid escalating violence where indigenous communities are waging a struggle for autonomy from the state.
As a result of the clashes with the security forces, there were "two deaths and three injured who have arrived at different health centers in the Province of Arauco," Delgado said at the press conference, as cited by the local news agency El Mostrador.
Delgado offered a chronological account of the events, which he described as "terrorist attacks in a context of a state of emergency."
In October, President Pinera announced a state of emergency in the Biobio and La Araucania regions in the south of Chile, where clashes had broken out between Mapuche indigenous people - who are demanding the restoration of their ancestral lands and self-determination - and the country's security forces. (ANI/Sputnik)
( With inputs from ANI )
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