Santiago, Chile, Mar 27 — The Supreme Court opened a new process against Mapuche indigenous people under the Antiterrorist Legislation, a legal instrument implemented by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
To that end, the trial preparations began on Monday in the so-called Guarantee Court in the town of Victoria, in the region of Araucania, against ten local residents, including two minors, on terrorist charges of armed robbery, arson and conspiracy, among other crimes allegedly committed in October 2009.
This process, as well as previous trials of Mapuche people, has been criticized by indigenous authorities and legal experts, because the main evidence presented by the prosecution would be the declaration of a protected witness, a controversial figure covered by the aforementioned law.
According to Jorge Hunchullán, a spokesman for the Temucuicui autonomous community, in the Arauco region, the trial is considered another maneuver more oriented to criminalize the Mapuche people's struggle to regain their land and champion their ancestral rights.
For the Temucuicui community, it is also a double discrimination and racism by the Chilean government, which, while using its legal-repressive apparatus, it will process and bring to trial two children under the antiterrorist law, because it is clearly an abuse and violation of multiple rights, Huenchullán added.
Source: Prensa Latina