SANTIAGO, Chile — Chilean police say that hooded vandals burned a bus and scattered pamphlets in protest of an upcoming visit by Pope Francis to a southern region that the Mapuche indigenous group claims as its ancestral territory. Police said Friday that the arson attack took place in the Araucania region, about 370 miles (600 kilometres) south of the Chilean capital. Pope Francis: You’re not welcome to Araucania.”Francis will visit Chile from Jan. 15-18, and he will lead a mass in Temuco, the capital of the Araucania region, on Jan. 17. They resisted the Spanish conquest for 300 years until military defeats in the late 19th century forced them into Araucania, south of the Bio Bio river. Some radical factions of the Mapuche have torched churches, farms and lumber trucks to demand the return of land.

Source: National Post November 10, 2017 18:24 UTC