Mapuche leader Hector Laetul sentenced to 23 years in prison in Chile

(CNN Spanish) — The Oral Criminal Court of Temuco, in Chile’s Araucanía region, this Tuesday sentenced Héctor Lalaitul, the Mapuche leader of the Arauco-Maleco Coordination (CAM), to 23 years in prison for theft, crimes included in the state’s security law. And attack against power.

Lalaitul was found guilty on 22 April following his arrest in 2022, after the regional prosecutor’s office indicated it was investigating him for possible crimes related to statements in which he defended episodes of violence linked to the regional occupation. Did or called for fighting against forestry companies.

Along with his defense, he has always alleged harassment by regional authorities.

“One would think that a government like Gabriel Boric (President of Chile) would treat this conflict differently, at least differently than a right-wing government, but it is quite the opposite. This has not only continued but deepened the neoliberal policy that has failed over the past 30 years. “Its security policy has become stricter and more sophisticated, while it tries to invest resources in buying land and annexing certain communities,” Laetul said in a letter sent in May 2023 to Radio Universidad de Chile. “

Months earlier, Lalaitul had admitted that he had taken part in what he called “recovery” of the wood.

“But he is not part of the wood theft mafias, that is another issue. The wood we recover is to generate resources and inputs to rebuild the Mapuche world,” he said during a book presentation in Santiago in August 2022.

For his part, the regional governor of La Araucania, Luciano Rivas, indicated through a statement this Tuesday that he is confident that Lalaitul will remain in prison during this sentence.

A gendarme at the Biobío prison complex guards the facility where Mapuche leader Hector Letul is detained in Concepcion, Chile, May 7, 2024. Credit: Guillermo Salgado/AFP via Getty Images

“Today a little justice and peace has been provided to the many people who suffer from terrorism every day in the Southern Macrozone. He indicated in a message published on his account on the social network X, formerly Twitter, that in 23 years we hope that this person will not come out of prison.

Laitul’s sentence should be carried out without the possibility of an alternative sentence, the judge in this case explained. In detail, a total of 15 years’ imprisonment for acts against state security, five years for theft of wood and three years for attacks against authority, to which is added a fine of approximately US$1,000.}

CAM is a Mapuche organization that emerged in the late 1990s, which has since claimed responsibility for various acts of violence in the southern country.