It is a complex scenario for Alihuen Antileo Navarrete (Temuco, 59 years old) in the Chilean Constitutional Council, the country's second attempt to have a new Magna Carta after the failure of 2022, when 62% voted against the proposal of the Constitutional Convention that consecrated Chile as a Plurinational State. Unlike the previous process, in which 17 out of 154 members belonged to indigenous peoples, in May only he was elected by the Mapuche people. "The fact that the rejection won in September last year was a deep disappointment. We are not only talking about an electoral defeat, but about an opportunity and a cycle. I have participated in the indigenous movement for 30 years and I know that I will never see a historical, legal and constitutional window like that again. That is clear to me", says Antileo to EL PAÍS.

He explains, with pragmatism: "For me the convention of 2021-2022 is already history. It is a lesson learned, a subject for sociologists or anthropologists. It has already been, and the result was rejection. Fifty articles were presented and now we have zero. I start from that reality and now I have to be in another moment, with a different political composition that is not favorable for the rights of indigenous peoples. I start in a disadvantageous situation and no longer trying to consecrate 50 articles, but at least three, four or five that can represent a base".

These proposals will be rules on reserved seats both for Congress and for regional and communal governments; the recognition of collective rights in the Constitution "and, undoubtedly, additionally I will raise the issue of land restitution for the Mapuche and indigenous peoples, since it is a historical demand".

Antileo, spokesman for the Mapuche Political Platform (PPM), was elected in May as a left-wing independent in a body of 50 members in which not only political parties predominate, but also the right wing has a majority. In his political orphanage, the graduate in legal sciences sought alliance with the Democratic Revolution (RD) bench, part of the Broad Front (FA) to which Chilean president Gabriel Boric belongs. It is a sector, says the lawyer, with which there is a previous affinity because, in 2022, he was about to approve the proposed Constitution.

But this second constitutional process, which began a month ago, has other characteristics, since the 50 councilors work on the basis of a draft bill of laws that, previously, was elaborated by an Expert Commission. Unlike the 2022 proposal that the people rejected, this draft only contains two articles referring to indigenous peoples. The main one is their constitutional recognition as part of the Chilean Nation. "But it is an assimilationist approach, a merely declarative recognition, a step backwards. And we are going to try to get it changed," he criticizes.

His next challenge will be to seek support for the norms for indigenous peoples from the ruling forces in the Constitutional Council, that is, in the Frente Amplio, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party. If he can get them to sponsor it, he will be able to make the attempt before the majority of the right wing. "It is true that it is difficult, but that does not mean that the discussion should not be given. I cannot, based on the numbers, say that there is nothing to do. Because for that, it makes no sense for me to be here".

A radical past

It is a cold morning in Santiago. Antileo is sitting on a bench in the gardens of the National Congress headquarters in Santiago, where the Council functions. He is reserved and pragmatic. And, when he speaks, he reveals someone with political experience, in his case, radical. In the past, in the 1980s, after returning from exile with his family from Sweden, he was part of the Communist Youth and then of the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), an armed resistance movement to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). In the 1990s he was a spokesman - he says it was "in the open" - for the Arauco Malleco Coordinating Committee (CAM), a Mapuche group that in recent years has intensified sabotage against the forestry industry and farmers in the southern macro-zone of Chile, claiming land. Today, however, the lawyer is far from CAM.

The CAM is one of the seven radical organizations that operate in the so-called southern macro-zone claiming land with violent actions, which is why since October 2021 the region of La Araucanía and the provinces of Biobío and Arauco have been under a state of constitutional exception, that is to say, with military presence. It has been a decree that started with the former president of the traditional right wing, Sebastián Piñera (2018-2022), and that Boric's administration has been forced to extend until today. These are actions that, at the end of 2022, the Chilean president described as "acts of a terrorist nature".

Last week, President Boric presented the Commission for Peace and Understanding, a cross-cutting group of eight members, which must carry out a land registry, with a deadline of 2025, to restitute lands to the Mapuche people. It is, strictly speaking, the fourth attempt by the Chilean State in 23 years to seek a political solution to the conflict and isolate groups such as the CAM. According to Antileo, "this political direction is the right one", and he believes that all sectors should be included in the new dialogue, "including all those groups that are trying to achieve their territorial demands by armed means".

Antileo is especially attentive to the Commission for Peace and Understanding, of which he emphasizes that "it has a transversal support, that must be recognized". And he announces to EL PAÍS that he will propose within the Constitutional Council a norm for Boric's initiative to be part of the new proposal for the Magna Carta.

In his analysis he foresees risks. And he says that as the commission finishes its work in 2025, this will coincide with a year of presidential elections, which risks, he assures, that the next Administration will not be interested. "To execute it requires to be Government again, and in case it is not, which is a likely scenario, the future Government may very well disregard the scope of this commission because it has no constitutional anchor. That is why I have to raise it, even if there are sectors that say no", says Antileo, again, with pragmatism.

"I have the impression that the President of the Republic has a political will, but it is also true that there have been two important events, which are the rejection of the proposed Constitution and the composition of this new Council, which have weakened the Government and reduced its room for maneuver. So, as indigenous people, I have to see how, under these conditions, we can still move forward. And if I propose that this commission be constitutionally consecrated and the councilors of the ruling party tell me that they are not available, the indigenous and Mapuche movement will be clear that this government does not want to give any more guarantees. It would be the worst signal".