Chile Congress Reserves Indigenous Seats In Constitution Commission

Chile's indigenous community will have 17 seats reserved for it in the commission charged with rewriting the South American country's constitution following a vote in parliament.

"We didn't get the maximum, but it's a crucial step that will mark the history of our country," opposition senator Alfonso De Urresti said following Tuesday's vote.

The bill that originally proposed 24 seats among the 155 members of the Constituent Assembly be reserved for indigenous people was adopted by the lower house Chamber of Deputies in November, before it was rejected by the upper house Senate due to the lack of a quorum.

A mixed commission made up of deputies and senators was then assembled to find common ground on the deal.

Chileans voted overwhelmingly in favor of changing the dictatorship era constitution in an October referendum.

They will vote again in April to elect the 155 Constituent Assembly members.

Changing the constitution, which dated from the rule of military dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-90), was a key demand by a mass protest movement that began in October 2019 and lasted for months.

A previous law passed by Congress deemed that the commission must be equally split between men and women.

Indigenous people make up 12.8 percent of Chile's 18 million population, meaning they would need 20 seats to be proportionally represented in the commission.