Abstract
Chile is currently living in constitutional momentum. A constituent assembly (the so-called, Constitutional Convention, Convención Constitucional) comprising 155 elected delegates began its work on 4 July 2021. On 25 October 2020, a historical referendum that asked Chileans whether they wanted a new constitution – despite the difficult COVID-19 situation that had already postponed the referendum from 26 April to October – saw one of the highest participation rates of recent years. A vast majority (78.2%) voted for having a new constitutional reform and an assembly whose members were to be elected by the citizens. Elections for the constituent delegates were held last May 2021. Out of the 155 seats, 17 were reserved to Chile’s ten recognized indigenous peoples. Moreover, the President of the Constitutional Convention is not only a well-known female academic but, and most importantly, an indigenous Mapuche woman: Elisa Loncón Antileo. In its third session, delegates have already discussed and adopted a declaration on the importance of both human and indigenous rights and the victims of violence and repressions with a specific reference to the indigenous Mapuche people. After more than two centuries of proclaimed independence, Chile is thus finally setting its roadmap to write a new Constitution and put aside the obsolete Pinochet’s Constitution of 1980. The independence of Chile was formally announced in 1818 but dated back in 1810, despite back then a vast part of the Chilean territory was still disputed between Creoles and indigenous peoples. The current constitutional reform may also finally give indigenous peoples and their rights a long-due constitutional recognition .