Héctor Llautil, the Mapuche leader arrested for inciting the rebellion

First modification: 08/25/2022 – 04:19

Chilean authorities detained Héctor Llaitul, 54, the leader of the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco, CAM, one of the main organizations outside the law found in the Chilean Araucanía.

The process against Llaitul began in 2020 by the Government of Piñera, after his statements at the exit of the Court of Justice where Daniel Canio, another of the leaders of his organization, was found guilty, on that occasion he called to use “methods that suppose the use of violence and commission of crimes, in order to disregard the aforementioned court ruling and affect forestry activities in the area.”

Although when Gabriel Boric was already the president of Chile, Llaitul called for “organizing armed resistance” after the government’s decision to declare a state of emergency in this area of ​​the country. Boric at that time decided not to report him for his statements.

Although at the end of July new complaints were filed for which the Prosecutor’s Office ordered his arrest.

Chile’s Interior Minister, Izquia Siches, said on Twitter that “As a government we want to confirm that the rule of law works in our country, and that no one is above the law,” said the minister @izkia after the arrest of Héctor Llaitul . She called for “not taking political profits and letting the institutions work.”

Llaitul has been accused of committing different crimes since 1997, when the CAM started. Precisely in that year, three trucks were incinerated, although the author of the events is unknown. The violent act would be recognized as the first in the “Mapuche conflict.”

Llaitul was born in Osorno and according to investigations, he would have started his guerrilla activity when he was studying at the Catholic University of Valparaíso in the 1980s. He has been known as “Comandante Héctor” and “El Negro”.

In 1988 he was arrested and sent to the Quillota Prison, where he denounced torture, according to what he said in a lawsuit against the State filed in 2021.

In 2008, after the attack on prosecutor Mario Elgueta, Llaitul was found guilty of the events. The Supreme Court overturned the conviction after spending five years in jail.

The exacerbation of the conflict occurs precisely when part of the indigenous world has opted for an institutional path to respond to its historical demands: participation in the constitutional convention that drafted the proposal for a new Constitution that will be plebiscited on September 4. It is a process that, however, Llautil and the CAM view from a distance.

President Boric himself has recognized the difficulty in dealing with the conflict that this Administration defines as “between the Chilean State and the Mapuche people.” He has justified, in turn, changes of opinion on issues such as the implementation of the state of emergency, because the level of violence in the area makes it impossible to control it with police alone, the president said in an interview with a television channel on Sunday. .

The 2020 complaint against Llaitul that allows his arrest was filed by the former mayor of La Araucanía, Víctor Manoli. “We believe that the facts reported in this complaint carry a message to destroy, disable, paralyze, damage or interrupt productive activities such as forestry, along with producing and communicating fear and violence, not only to those who work in that area, but that in addition to the inhabitants of the areas where these activities are carried out and are related to them, in the region of La Araucanía”, indicates the complaint from two years ago.

The exacerbation of the conflict occurs precisely when part of the indigenous world has opted for an institutional path to respond to its historical demands: participation in the constitutional convention that drafted the proposal for a new Constitution that will be plebiscited on September 4. It is a process that, however, Llautil and the CAM view from a distance.

with local media