The Chilean justice system sentenced Héctor Llaitul, the main radical Mapuche leader, to 23 years in prison on Tuesday (05/07/2024) for several attacks on the police and forestry companies in the midst of his fight for the recovery of “ancestral lands” that claims for the indigenous people.
The Chilean Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá, said that the conviction for various crimes is a “sign that the State of Chile is closing the door in all ways to violence as a way of processing conflicts.”
Llaitul, leader of the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM), a Mapuche organization that began to use violence to claim land in southern Chile, was found guilty of the crimes of incitement and apology for violence, violent usurpation, theft of wood and attack on authority.
The sentence was read in the presence of Judge Rocío Pinilla, of the criminal court of the city of Temuco, in southern Chile, during a virtual hearing.
Llaitul must serve 15 years in prison as “the author of the crimes of violation (…) of the State Security Law,” the sentence states. In addition, he must pay five years in prison for theft and three for attacking authority.
Prosecutor’s Office: sentence sets a relevant precedent
“It is a very important sentence. It marks a relevant precedent in the persecution of criminal organizations that operate in the southern macrozone,” said regional prosecutor Roberto Garrido.
Held for almost two years in a prison in Concepción (south), Llaitul, 56, was found guilty on April 22 of incitement to violence, violent usurpations, simple theft and attack against authority.
According to Minister Toha, the CAM “played a very emblematic role” as the first group, after the return to democracy in 1990, “that took the path of violence as a way to make the Mapuche demand.”
“We hope that this sentence helps to leave that stage behind, and we want to say (…) to those who feel identified with the need for a different agreement between the State and the indigenous Mapuche people of Chile, that there are other ways to discuss those demands, not that of violence, but that of dialogue,” he assured journalists in Congress, in Valparaíso.
Sabotage and occupation by force
In the late 1990s, the CAM began a campaign against forestry companies through sabotage and burning of machinery and homes. In addition, its members have forcibly occupied several properties in private hands and have clashed with the police.
The actions have been concentrated in the original areas of the Mapuche: Biobío, La Araucanía and Los Ríos, between 500 and 900 km south of Santiago.
On April 27, shortly after Llaitul was declared guilty, the crime of three police officers took place, whose bodies were cremated in the Biobío region. The authorities have not yet identified those responsible for the worst attack against the Carabineros (militarized police) in recent years, nor has any organization claimed responsibility.
jc (afp, efe, Radio Bio Bio, El Mercurio, La Tercera)
