Fri Jun 23, 2017 | 3:10pm EDT
President Michelle Bachelet asked for forgiveness from Chile's indigenous Mapuche people on Friday for "errors and horrors" committed by the state and announced plans to give them more power and resources.
In the midst of growing tension between the Mapuche and loggers and farmers in Chile's south-central provinces, the center-left president said she would send a project to Congress creating an Indigenous Peoples' Ministry.
Cash would be dedicated to building roads and providing drinking water in remote areas, as well as programs to more rapidly transfer land to indigenous people that they claim as their ancestral home, she said.
"We've failed as a country," Bachelet said from La Moneda presidential palace in capital Santiago.
More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-mapuche-idUSKBN19E279?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29&&rpc=401