Mar 17, 2009

Mapuche: Chilean State to Use Anti Terrorism Law


Active ImageFamily of the accused insists carabineros planted evidence.

 

 

 

Below is an article published by: The Patagonia Times

The Chilean government has decided to dust off a powerful but controversial tactic to clamp down on the so-called Mapuche Conflict, wielding the Anti-Terrorism Law that is sharply opposed by human rights groups.
The move represents an about-face for the government of President Michelle Bachelet, who promised earlier in her term not to apply the infamous law.

The target in this case is Miguel Tapia Huenulef, a 45-year-old construction worker who was arrested last month [February 2009] in Santiago’s Lo Prado district. The Mapuche man is currently being held in a high security prison in Valdivia (Region XIV), where he awaits trial on a dozen different criminal charges.

Authorities allege Tapia Huenulef was involved in a January [2009] arson attack on a private estate near the town of Lautaro, in the Araucanía Region. Also known as Region IX, the Araucanía is home to approximately 33 per cent of Chile’s Mapuche, by far the country’s largest indigenous group. Tapia Huenulef has also been charged in connection with an attack last December [2008] on the Public Defender’s Office in Temuco, the Region IX capital.

In addition, police claim they found a stash of dangerous weapons during their Feb. 11 [2009] raid on Tapia Huenulef’s Lo Prado home. Among the items allegedly seized were a submachine gun, ammunition clips, two grenades and bomb-making materials, evidence that Interior Minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma says more than justifies the application of the Anti-Terrorism Law.

“This has all the hallmarks of an organization or of an attempt to create a terrorist organization,” Pérez Yoma told reporters last month [February 2009]. “We are therefore going to employ all the appropriate measures in this case, including application of the Anti-Terrorism law.”

Hardly A Cut-And-Dried Case


Tapia Huenulef’s family says the charges are preposterous and insists the real agents of terror in this case are the more than 50 police who raided their home, berated them with racial slurs, threatened them with guns, stole money, tools and cell phones and finally – toward the conclusion of the horrific five-hour ordeal – planted the evidence against Tapia.

“There’s a whole family here, with lots of children in the house. There’s no way (Miguel) would have all those weapons they showed on TV in his tiny room,” Ida Huenulef, the accused’s mother, told the Patagonia Times.

“Here there’s a five-year-old boy. Miguel adores him. The boy goes into his room, watches TV and movies, and plays with (Miguel’s) tools. And Miguel lets him,” she added. “Imagine if he’d really had those weapons. What would have happened to the boy if there’d really been a grenade, like (the police) claim?”

More than a dozen police completely ransacked the 15-square-meter, sparsely furnished shack Tapia Huenulef uses as a bedroom, his mother recalled. And yet after approximately two hours they were unable to find anything more incriminating than a Che Guevara poster and some Silvio Rodriguez CDs. The supposed arsenal, said Ida Huenulef, only materialized after several men wearing civilian clothes and black backpacks entered the bedroom.

“That’s when the police starting making comments out loud like: ‘With this we’re really going to screw this guy,’” said Ida Tapia Huenulef, Miguel’s sister. “They congratulated each other. ‘My captain’s going to be happy with this. Look what we found.’ But they never showed anything. I was right in front of the door and I didn’t see anything.”

Fernando Lira, vice president of Chile’s Humanist Party, is convinced the family is telling the truth. In fact, this type of police setup is common in cases involving Mapuches accused of arson and other types of property attacks, according to Lira, who has helped defend several alleged indigenous radicals.

“We’re certain that in many of the cases we’ve participated in police planted evidence,” he said. “After the fact, in a trial, it’s very hard for someone to defend himself against this type of charge. How can you defend yourself when 20 police officers all line up and say the same thing, that they found a weapon in your house? It’s your word against 20. Are all 20 people wrong? That’s happens a lot.”

Terror-Law Turnaround

Defendants are even more vulnerable when faced with the Anti-Terrorism Law, which provides prosecutors with special privileges by allowing, for example, testimony from anonymous witnesses. First established in 1984 during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), law 19.027 was originally designed to pursue armed political groups involved in kidnappings, attacks on police stations and assassinations. The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) describes it as the “harshest” of all Chilean statutes.

“It doubles the normal sentences for some offenses, makes pre-trial release more difficult, enables the prosecution to withhold evidence from the defense for up to six months, and allows defendants to be convicted on testimony given by anonymous witnesses. These witnesses appear in court behind screens so that the defendants and the public cannot see them,” notes a 2004 report HRW coauthored with the Temuco-based Observatory of Indigenous Peoples’ Rights (ODPI).

During the Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006) government, courts began applying the Anti-Terrorism to cases involving Mapuche attacks on private property. Lagos’ successor, President Bachelet, put a stop to the practice, promising while on a trip to Austria in 2006 that she would not apply the law during her term in office.

Why, then, with less than a year to go before Bachelet’s mandate expires, would the government suddenly change its tune?

The answer may be politics as usual. The governing Concertación coalition currently finds itself in the unfamiliar role of underdog heading into this December’s presidential election, making it particularly vulnerable to the type of “soft on crime” criticisms levied against it by front-runner Sebastián Piñera and other conservative leaders. Indeed, on a campaign stop in Region XI last month [February 2009], Piñera – a wealthy businessman and former senator – promised that if elected, his government will not hesitate to use the Anti-Terrorism Law.

That kind of tough talk resonates well with business leaders like René Araneda, general manager of Temuco’s Sociedad de Fomento Agrícola. Until authorities can secure the Araucanía, said Araneda, investors and tourists will continue to spend their money elsewhere – in Regions VIII or X.

“The groups that are carrying out the violence are small but well armed, and well supported by national and international organizations. They’re creating a climate of violence,” he said. “In the sense that these acts cause terror, for me they’re terrorist acts. As long as a law exists to deal specifically with terrorist acts, then we shouldn’t be afraid to use it.”

It remains a fact, nevertheless, that the only people who have lost their lives in the Mapuche conflict are Mapuches themselves – at the hands of police. Last year [2009] Carabineros shot and killed a 22-year-old Mapuche activist named Matías Catrileo. In 2003 another young Mapuche man, 19-year-old Alex Lemún, died after police shot him in the head.

“Since (the Spanish) first came here they’ve wanted to get rid of us,” said Ida Huenulef. “But we’re still here, with our heads high. Our new generations continue to fight because we Mapuches always share our history with our children.”