Santiago, Dec 31 (IANS/EFE) Militants from the Mapuche Indian community set fire to a forest service helicopter in Chile, officials said.
The attack took place at a forest service camp in the southern region of Araucania Friday. Police said the $2.5 million fire-fighting chopper was destroyed.
After setting the helicopter ablaze, the militants put up posters with references to their struggle to reclaim ancestral lands.
Forest officials sleeping at the camp said they were awakened by gunshots and then heard the helicopter explode.
Mapuches, the country’s largest indigenous group, make up around 650,000 of Chile’s 17 million people and are concentrated in Araucania and Greater Santiago.
Mapuche militants have in the past torched vehicles and highway toll booths as part of a campaign to reclaim from agribusiness firms and forest product companies lands the native Indians lost during the 19th century.
