Social Development suspends the Mapuche indigenous consultation on the new land system once again

The Ministry of Social Development and Family, through the Undersecretariat of Social Services, suspended the indigenous prior consultation process instructed in 2025 regarding a new land system for Mapuche communities. The decision is contained in exempt resolution No. 360, dated September 11, 2026, also signed by the Ministry of the Interior, and was published in the Official Gazette No. 44,557, on Thursday, September 24, 2026, in Section I of General Norms (CVE 2874553).

The suspended procedure was initiated by exempt resolution No. 244, dated June 27, 2025, from the Ministry of Social Development and Family, published in the Official Gazette on July 3, 2025, which convened the representative institutions of the Mapuche people from the regions of Biobío, La Araucanía, Los Ríos, and Los Lagos. The process is governed by Convention No. 169 of the International Labour Organization, promulgated by supreme decree No. 236 of 2008 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and by supreme decree No. 66 of 2013 from the then Ministry of Social Development, which approves the General Regulation for Indigenous Consultation.

Seventeen consecutive suspensions since 2025

The new extension adds to a chain of administrative acts that have kept the process stalled for more than a year. According to the text of exempt resolution No. 360 itself, the previous suspensions, all for the regulatory period of 15 business days, were:

• Exempt resolution No. 412, dated September 29, 2025 (published September 30, 2025).
• Exempt resolution No. 462, dated October 21, 2025 (October 22, 2025).
• Exempt resolution No. 525, dated November 12, 2025 (November 13, 2025).
• Exempt resolution No. 557, dated December 3, 2025 (December 4, 2025).
• Exempt resolution No. 604, dated December 26, 2025 (December 29, 2025).
• Exempt resolution No. 16, dated January 21, 2026 (January 21, 2026).
• Exempt resolution No. 50, dated February 12, 2026 (February 12, 2026).
• Exempt resolution No. 102, dated March 6, 2026 (March 6, 2026).
• Exempt resolution No. 138, dated March 24, 2026 (March 27, 2026).
• Exempt resolution No. 147, dated April 13, 2026 (April 16, 2026).
• Exempt resolution No. 156, dated May 5, 2026 (May 7, 2026).
• Exempt resolution No. 184, dated May 27, 2026 (May 29, 2026).
• Exempt resolution No. 206, dated June 17, 2026 (June 19, 2026).
• Exempt resolution No. 239, dated July 8, 2026 (July 10, 2026).
• Exempt resolution No. 254, dated July 30, 2026 (August 6, 2026).
• Exempt resolution No. 323, dated August 21, 2026 (August 28, 2026).

The document recalls that during the planning stage, convened between Wednesday, August 13, and Thursday, September 25, 2025, 71 meetings were held in 71 localities across the four regions involved.

The report supporting the new extension

The measure is based on the seventeenth reasoned suspension report, dated September 4, 2026, sent to the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Social Development and Family via ordinary letter No. 21368, dated September 9, 2026, from the Department of Indigenous Affairs of the Undersecretariat of the Interior.

That report concludes that it is not yet feasible to verify the enablement of the conditions required to continue the process, because substantive elements remain to be addressed, and deems it necessary to deepen the analysis of the background and proceed with instances of dialogue and relationship-building with the representative institutions of the convened Mapuche people. The Coordination Unit for Indigenous and Afro-descendant Affairs (UCAIA) was transferred to the Ministry of the Interior by article 45 of Law No. 21,796, on the 2026 Public Sector Budget, and the technical units of the process were grouped into the Department of Indigenous Affairs through exempt resolution No. 5,895, dated May 28, 2026.

Scope of the act and publicity

The resolutive part provides:

• To suspend the administrative procedure for prior consultation regarding the measures relating to a new land system for Mapuche indigenous communities and organizations, for 15 business days counted from the total processing of the act.
• To incorporate a copy of the resolution into the administrative file associated with the process.
• To publish it in the Official Gazette, on the Active Transparency portals of the Undersecretariat of the Interior and the Undersecretariat of Social Services, and on the consultation website (https://www.gob.cl/nuevosistemadetierras/), throughout the entire suspension period.

The act bears the signatures of Minister María Jesús Wulf Le May and Minister Claudio Alvarado Andrade, and was transcribed by the Undersecretary of Social Services, Alejandro Fernández González.

The relevance of this publication is twofold: it confirms that the consultation process on the new land system still has no resumption date after seventeen consecutive suspensions, and it provides official record that the conditions required by article 18 of the General Regulation of Indigenous Consultation have not been restored, which keeps the participation of the convened Mapuche communities and organizations in suspense.

Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile, No. 44,557, Thursday, September 24, 2026, Section I (General Norms), pp. 1-6 (official reference: CVE 2874553).