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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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12Feb14
Infiltrator of Carabineros confesses responsibility for incendiary attacks in the region of La Araucanía
The Criminal Trial Court of Angol unanimously acquitted Luis Marileo and Patricio Queipul, who were charged with acts of violence in 2009 in the region of la Araucanía in a case known as "the Quino Toll" and tried pursuant to the Anti-Terrorist Law despite being minors at the time of the incident.
Seven adults have already been acquitted in respect of this incident whilst both minors had to remain in preventive custody during the course of the investigation.
In the context of this trial, Raúl Castro Antipán testified on Tuesday before the court. A protected witness of the prosecution, he confessed to having carried out four incendiary attacks as well as other acts described as "terrorist" acts while he was working as an undercover agent of the Carabineros, with the objective of incriminating mapuche leaders.
"Castro Antipán told the judges that he had been infiltrated into the mapuche movement by the Carabineros and on this basis he had committed crimes such as illegal possession of arms, incendiary attacks and an an attack on a highway toll" stated the Jesuit priest Luis García Huidobro.
Between 2009 and 2011, while Michelle Bachelet was President and Edmundo Pérez Yoma was the Interior Minister, thirty members of this community were imprisoned as a result of the testimony of Raúl Castro Antipán as a "paid informant" ("delator compensado") under the Anti-Terrorist Law. Both Luis Marileo and Patricio Queipul remained in prison for over a year, with the fundamental evidence against them being the words of this undercover agent who worked for the Carabineros.
With respect to this situation, the journalist and writer Pedro Cayuqueo affirmed that "for many people in the South of Chile, what is happening with this protected prosecution witness is nothing new", and he went on to describe the history of the trials in which Raúl Castro Antipán has participated.
"This individual took part in a trial in Temuco last year , where he was also the card that the prosecutor had up its sleeve. Using his testimony they sought to incriminate members of the mapuche community who were eventually acquitted. The fact that he is now taking part in another trial not only highlights an irregularity in due process here in the South, but also the lack of evidence that the Prosecutorīs office has to try to imprison these community members" he stated.
In his opinion, there is a clear political intent behind the persecution of Mapuche militants, underlined by the application of the Anti-Terrorist Law which has been questioned by various human rights bodies at the national and international level.
"The application of this law violates due process and the procedural guarantees of the Mapuche citizens. What could be clearer evidence of this, for example, than the use in this case of protected witnesses who are confessed criminals and who take advantage of the provisions of the Anti-Terrorist Law such as that of paid information which are used as tools of persecution of the leaders of these communities? It is a pity that the Prosecutorīs Office has to resort to confessed criminals to try to imprison these leaders and this is something which really should be of concern to the authorities", he added.
This confession corroborates the complaints made for some years by the Mapuche people and by human rights and civil society organizations with respect to the use of infiltrated agents to provoke disturbances which facilitate the arrest of social leaders.
[Source: Diario Universidad de Chile, Santiago, 12Feb14]
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