Nearly Four Years Detained Without Sentencing: Lautaro Case Verdict Sparks Renewed Debate on Criminalization of the Mapuche People

The events occurred in 2022 at the San Luis estate, located in the Lautaro commune, La Araucanía Region. The accused include Pelentaro Llaitul Pezoa – son of the historic leader of the Arauco Malleco Coordinator (CAM), Héctor Llaitul-, Luis Menares Chañilao, Luis Fuenzalida Eneros, Jorge Caniupil Coña, and Juan Mardones Sáez.

The Oral Criminal Court in Temuco requalified and acquitted the defendants of some charges that the Prosecutor’s Office and the plaintiffs demanded, for which proposed sentences ranged from 50 to 90 years of effective imprisonment.

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Specifically, it condemned all the Mapuche community members as perpetrators of repeated arson, theft combined with simple kidnapping, and theft.

Unanimously, the court—composed of judges José Ignacio Rau Atria (president), Javier Bascur Pavez, and Wilfred Ziehlmann Zamorano (reporter)—declared proven both the commission of the offenses and the culpable participation of the defendants in the acts established in the sentence. Additionally, in the same procedure, the ruling was condemning for Llaitul Pezoa and Mardones Sáez, considering them responsible for the completed offense of illegal possession of ammunition.

The lawyer for Pelentaro Llaitul Pezoa and Jorge Caniupil Coña, María Rivera Iribarren, stated that without knowing the sentence that will be read on July 13, the ruling requalified «the more serious crimes they were being accused of.»

In the same vein, lawyer Jorge Guzmán explained that although the projected sentences vary, generally decreasing, «even so, the sentences being forecasted are quite high» for the community members, given the historical criminalization of the Mapuche people.

Community Sentences Heighten Due to Political Conflict Between the State and the Mapuche People

«They are going to be, let’s say, deprived of liberty for a long time. This also speaks of a context of political condemnation, given that they should not face these types of sentences, but which, in the context of the historical conflict of the Chilean State with the Mapuche people, are accentuated and increased,» said statements recorded by Radio Kurruf.

The lawyer, who is also responsible for the defense of Llaitul Pezoa and Caniupil Coña, recalled that from La Moneda there has been a concern to launch an offensive against a conflict that is purely political, «which is what the Mapuche people have in demand for the return of the territory that has been historically usurped by the Chilean State.»

«In relation to this, multiple demands have arisen that are mainly political in nature, to demand what is rightfully theirs, supported by international law. The Chilean state, on its part, has only perpetuated the status quo and instead of focusing on resolving this conflict, it authorizes the mechanisms that are already available to protect, improve the land purchases from Conadi, increase the Conadi budget, or anything else, it has solely dedicated itself to intensifying criminal prosecution through numerous repressive laws.«

Guzmán suggested that although in another scenario much higher sentences could apply, «they would never be as high as what is happening in these cases.«

«It is very striking that people who commit corruption crimes against the entire country, such as Supreme Court judges, Court of Appeals judges, and businessmen who profit at the expense of all Chileans, do not spend a single minute in jail. While those people fighting for what is legitimately right, for what they are entitled to by law, could face sentences of between 10 to 20 years in prison,» he stated.

Repressive Laws Against the Mapuche People

For her part, lawyer María Rivera stated that since the governments of the Ex Concertación to the present, a whole series of repressive laws «that are currently being applied against social fighters and especially against the Mapuche People» have been enacted.

«The Ministry of Public Security explicitly stated its intent to apply the enemy criminal law, meaning that anyone participating in a resistance organization is immediately presumed guilty (…) scandalously, the lawyer from the Ministry of Public Security is now proposing a new theory that is to refuse to recognize the previous irreproachable conduct of anyone subjected to a trial and conviction, which does not exist anywhere else in the world,» she accused.

She suggested that this strategy is part of the policy in which the State of Chile attempts to» force criminal responsibility and transfer it» and questioned that «instead of sitting down and thinking about a political resolution to the problems of the Mapuche people, they bring them to court and aim for high sentences that make the Mapuche people renounce their right to fight for the recovery of their territory.»