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NEWS & LETTERS, June-July 2006Chilean Mapuche hunger strikersAmherst, Mass.--Juan Carlos Huenulao, Florencio Jaime Marileo, Juan Patricio Marileo, and Patricia Roxana Troncoso have been on hunger strike since March 13, 2006 at the Angol Prison in the Novena Region (Ninth Region) of Chile. They were tried and sentenced under an anti-terrorism law, put in place by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Juan Carlos Huenulao, Florencio Jaime Marileo and Juan Patricio Marileo are Mapuche, one of the indigenous ethnic groups of Southern Chile. Patricia Roxana Troncoso is a student who lived among the Mapuche community and who has pledged solidarity to their cause. In 2005, they were all sentenced to ten years imprisonment and fined over 425 million Chilean pesos (US$827) under anti-terrorist law. All four have been in prison since 2002 after being convicted of setting fire to 100 hectares of forest in 2001. They claim the forest is Mapuche ancestral land that was wrongfully distributed to timber and paper producing companies during the Pinochet dictatorship. The hunger strikers are protesting against what they claim was an unfair trial and an unjust sentence under legislation that is not applicable in this case. On April 28, 2006 the Chilean Minister of the Interior, Andres Zaldivar, promised that the Anti-Terrorist Law would no longer be applied against the Mapuche people. However no mention was made of the four individuals currently in prison under this law. The Mapuche Solidarity Committee of Western Massachusetts calls on the Chilean government to ensure that all four political prisoners on hunger strike receive immediate and adequate medical attention and are treated with humanity and respect. The committee supports their demand to have their sentence reviewed by the Chilean Court of Justice and requests that the Chilean government stop applying the anti-terrorism law in this case and in any future case against Mapuche people. To support the four, call 413 256 1298 or email millapel52@hotmail.com --Ester Orellana Update: After weeks of solidarity actions in Chile and around the world, including protests in Austria, England and the U.S., the four jailed Mapuche rights activists agreed to suspend their 63-day hunger strike on May 14. In exchange the government agreed to consider their supervised release from prison. |
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