CHILE RIGHTS RIOTS FLARE

SANTIAGO: Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has declared a state of emergency and deployed troops to two southern regions where clashes have broken out between Mapuche indigenous people and security forces.

The Mapuche are demanding the restoration of their ancestral lands and selfdetermination.

“We have decided to call a state of exception” in four provinces of the southern regions of Biobio and Araucania and the deployment of troops to help control “the serious disturbance of public order”, Mr Pinera said.

The President addressed the nation on a controversial national holiday that marks the so-called “discovery” of the Americas by Columbus.

It is a day in history that is viewed as a disaster by many indigenous peoples throughout the Americas due to the colonisation that followed.