Slow-Burning Challenge to Chile on Easter Island
Slow-Burning Challenge to Chile on Easter Island
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: October 6, 2012
HANGA ROA, Easter Island — Not long ago, as some elders of the Rapanui people wistfully recall, a sense of profound isolation pervaded this windswept speck of land in the Pacific. Horses were the dominant mode of transportation, flights to the outside world were few and far between, and the island’s Polynesian language enjoyed dominance in most spheres of life.
Now, so many cars roam the roads of this fragile island (it is smaller than Martha’s Vineyard) that Rapanui grimly joke how they may outnumber the moai, the prized towering statues their ancestors carved from volcanic tuff, beguiling archaeologists. Spanish, the language of Chile, which annexed Easter Island in 1888, now prevails across much of the island. New luxury hotels catering to rich Chileans and moneyed foreign visitors charge $1,100 a night, accentuating a festering income gap.
And there is yet another feature of life in Chile, a nation grappling with fierce antigovernment protests by students and indigenous groups, which has made it here: violent clashes with security forces.
Inspired by other parts of Polynesia that have obtained a considerable degree of political autonomy or are in the process of seeking independence, leaders of the Rapanui people are mounting a slow-burning rebellion against Chile. Their movement on the island — which they call Rapa Nui, not Easter Island — presents a unique test for a Latin American country: quelling a challenge to its rule in the middle of the South Pacific.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/world/americas/slow-burning-rebellion-against-chile-on-easter-island.html?_r=1
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