•  is the First People of south-central Chile (IX Region);

• is considered the only indigenous people of Latin America to have never come under Spanish colonial rule;

• is not recognized, in the Chilean Constitution, as having the status of Nation;

• has increasingly become a victim of police violence and intimidation in response to its calls for territorial control and self-determination. The state has justified its firm hand using the national anti-terrorism law (Ley No 18.314), originally put in place by General Augusto Pinochet;

• continues to demand its right to self-determination in the face of the resistance of the Chilean government.