Chile: main radical indigenous Mapuche leader, Héctor Llaitul, sentenced to 23 years in prison

O Chilean justice sentenced on Tuesday to 23 years in prison Héctor Llaitulthe main radical leader Mapuchefor several attacks on police and forestry companies in the midst of their fight to recover “ancestral lands” that he demands for indigenous peoples.

The sentence was read in the presence of the judge Rocío Pinillaof the Criminal Court of the city of Temucoin the south of Pepperduring a virtual hearing.

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Llaitul must serve 15 years in prison as “perpetrator of the crimes of infringement (…) of State Security Law”, says the phrase.

In addition, he must pay five years in prison for robbery and three for attacking authorities.

“It’s a very important phrase. It sets a relevant precedent in the persecution of criminal organizations operating in the southern macrozone“, said the regional prosecutor Roberto Garrido.

Held for almost two years in a Concepcion Prison (south), Llaitul, 56, was found guilty on April 22 of incitement to violence, violent usurpations, simple robbery and assault on authority.

Llaitul is the founder and main leader of Arauco Malleco Coordinator (CAM).

According to the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Toháthe camera “played a very emblematic role” as the first group, after the return to democracy in 1990, “that followed the path of violence as a way of making the Mapuche demand.

“We hope this phrase helps you leave this phase behind.and we want to say (…) to those who feel identified with the need for a different agreement between the State and the Mapuche indigenous people of Chile, that there are other ways of discussing these demands, not violence, but dialogue“, he assured journalists in Congress, in Valparaiso.

O camera At the end of the 1990s, a campaign began against forestry companies through sabotage and burning of machines and houses. Furthermore, its members forcibly occupied several private properties and clashed with the police.

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The actions were concentrated in the original Mapuche areas: Biobio, The Araucanía It is The riversbetween 500 and 900 km south of Santiago.

On April 27, shortly after Llaitul’s guilty plea, the crime of three police officers occurred, whose bodies were cremated in the Biobío region.

Authorities have not yet identified those responsible for the worst attack against Carabiniers (militarized police) in recent years, nor has any organization taken responsibility.

Cancellation request

Before the sentence was announced, authorities redoubled surveillance in the La Araucanía region, which was militarized two years ago.

The defense announced that it will try to have the trial declared null and void because it considers that the investigation against the Mapuche leader was “directed” it is a “faceless witness”.

Héctor Llaitul He has already spent almost a decade behind bars for illegal possession of weapons and attacks against authorities, among other crimes.

In 2017 he claimed his fight for “to recover“the ancestral land”usurped” to the Mapuches and obtain autonomy for the largest indigenous ethnic group in Chile, which represents 6.2% of the country’s 20 million inhabitants.

CAM dissidents formed other groups that operate in the so-called Mapuche zone, such as the Weichan Anka Mapu (WAM) and Mapuche Lafkenche Resistance (RML).

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Some of these groups were responsible for burning schools, churches, roadblocks, attacks on police and murders.

In the midst of the conflict with these groups, crimes such as wood theft it’s him drug trafficking.

Around twenty people have died in the last 25 years in the context of disputes with the Mapuche, between indigenous people, farm owners and those in uniform, according to official data.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.