The Mapuche conflict intensified following the return of democracy in the 1990s, with indigenist activists seeking to rectify the loss of what they call "ancestral territory" during the Occupation of the Araucanía and the Conquest of the Desert.

[7] Lastly, the central Reche, who inhabited the region between the Maule and Tolten Rivers, regularly entered into violent conflict with the Spanish and successfully held off the colonial power.

[7] The central Reche eventually experienced a large societal transformation due to the introduction of the horse to their society which resulted in economic changes in trade, political restructuring, and a relocation of the people.

[7] Eventually after a sustained period of war between the Mapuche and Spanish lasting for about a century, the two sides came together and created a peace agreement called the Treaty of Quilin in 1641.

[40] Although the Spanish Empire still legally recognized the Mapuche as authonomous following decolonization, no such agreement existed with the newly independent Chilean government.

[40] After the Frenchman, Orélie-Antoine de Tounens, tryied to create the Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia in the region, the Chilean government started the "Pacification of Araucania" movement between 1862 and 1883.

[40] Encroachment efforts appeared to subside when Salvadore Allende was elected president as his government was responsible for restoring significant amounts of Mapuche land.

[18] The conflict started in areas inhabited mostly by Mapuches like the vicinities of Purén, where the indigenous communities have been demanded that their ancestral lands, which were now the property of logging corporations, farming companies, and individuals, be turned over to them.

[60] As Chile transitioned to democracy in urban areas, a political project aimed at the "reconstruction of Wallmapu" emerged in indigenous southern territories.

[60] The construction of the Ralco Hydroelectric Plant, which displaced indigenous burial sites, was a breaking point in state-Mapuche relations, contributing to the formation of the Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) in 1997 following the burning of three trucks belonging to Forestal Arauco.

This event marked the beginning of the violence in the Southern Macrozone of Chile (also known as Araucanía conflict) and a turning point in the development of the Mapuche autonomist political movement.

[1] The CAM, which defines itself as anti-capitalist and "in resistance against neoliberalism," uses violence to reclaim lands it considers usurped during the Occupation of Araucanía and now held by large landowners and extractive industries.

[62] CAM leaders, such as Héctor Llaitul, represent a newer, more separatist generation compared to figures like Aucán Huilcamán, founder of the Council of All Lands.

In response to the controversies surrounding the Ralco Dams' construction, the Chilean Government signed the INFORME N° 30/04, PETICIÓN 4617/02, SOLUCION AMISTOSA, with the Iner-American Commission on Human Rights.

Despite the Chilean government's commitments to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to halt such projects on Indigenous lands, further controversial dams like Angostura and Rucalhue were developed.

The government of Michelle Bachelet said that it was not ready to contemplate expropriating land in the southern region of Araucania to restore lost ancestral territory to the Mapuche.

[citation needed] The strikes began on July 12, 2010, with a group that was in preventive detention, some for more than one year and a half, all accused of violating anti-terrorism legislation.

[72][73] The prosecutor said it was arson in a preliminary report while the newspaper La Tercera, linked it to the commemoration of the death of Matías Catrileo and to the truck burning the previous days.

[74] A relative of the dead persons claimed there was a campaign to empty the region of farmers and businessmen adding that "the guerrilla is winning" and lamented the "lack of rule of law".

[79][80] A June 2018 article in the equaltimes.org website reported that "military police (GOPE) often intervene violently, on the side of the companies, intimidating the Mapuche communities, acting indiscriminately against women or minors.

"[19] The Jesuit priest Carlos Bresciani, who has spent 15 years heading the Misión Jesuita Mapuche in Tirúa,[81] said that he doesn't see autonomy coming easily, given the disposition of the Chilean Senate, and that the "underlying problem is how communities participate in decision-making in their own territories".

"[84] In January 2018, while saying Mass before thousands at Temuco, "the de facto capital of the Mapuche community", Pope Francis called for an end to the violence,[85] and for solidarity with "those who daily bear the burden of those many injustices".

[86] In 2018, Camilo Catrillanca, the grandson of a local Indigenous leader, was shot in the head during a police operation in a rural community near the town of Ercilla.

[87] In January 2019 the Anti-Indigenist organization, Association for Peace and Reconciliation in Araucanía, was founded to defend the interest of farmers affected by incidents of violence by armed groups in the area.

[88] On 20 December 2019, the UN urged Switzerland to stop deportation of Mapuche activist Flor Calfunao to Chile because of concern for her human rights, including the risk of torture.

In the same region volunteer firefighters were caught in crossfire between police forces and indigenous militiamen while trying to get to the La Pasión farm to put out a fire.

Finally, in the Araucanía city of Carahue, militiamen exchanged fire with police officers carrying out a protective order outside the building of a logging company.

[92] In October, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera declared a state of emergency and deployed troops to Biobio and Araucania in response to clashes between security forces and Mapuche groups.

However, the Mapuche leader denied any involvement of the RAM in the forest fires that have spread across Argentine Patagonia since December, stating: "We have never done it, nor would we ever do it" in response to the accusations.

The proposal of constitution would have mainly hurt the legal rights of mining companies, decentralized the government and shifted more power to rural areas of Chile.