Hanga Roa

Hanga Roa (; , Rapa Nui pronunciation: [ˈha.ŋa ˈɾo.a]) (Spanish: Bahía Larga) is the main town, harbour and seat of Easter Island, a municipality of Chile. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau. History Hanga Roa in the native Rapa Nui language means "wide bay" or "long bay". Upon Chile's claim of the island, the Rapa Nui were forced in Hanga Roa, and the rest of the land was leased to a sheep farm. For much of the twentieth century, the rest of the island was leased to the Compañía Explotadora de la Isla de Pascua (CEDIP) (a subsidiary of Williamson-Balfour Company) and closed to the Rapa Nui. Some disagreements between the government of Chile and the Rapa Nui has led the locals with ancestral roots to "take over" many hotels in the city. For the locals, it is a way to draw the line between the Chilean government's policy-making in the island, and the Rapa Nui's ancestral rights on their land. In 2011, the Schiess family, owner of the Hanga Roa Hotel, donated back the land of the hotel to the Rapa Nui, but retained a 30-year management lease of the hotel. A week before, the Schiess family had personally shipped a special force squad from the Carabineros de Chile to remove the locals who squatted the hotel. A prior police intervention in August 2010 had led to 25 Rapa Nui protesters being wounded.