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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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| Information | | |
Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
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15Feb14
An infiltrator of the Carabineros caused the conviction of Mapuche youths
A protected witness has confessed that he infiltrated into Mapuche communities in Chile to carry out incendiary attacks on the instructions of the Carabineros. This is what Raúl Castro Antipán, a secret agent of the Chilean police, admitted yesterday and with this statement he has made it possible for two minors, accused of acts of violence and tried under the polemic Anti-Terrorist Law from the Pinochet regime, to be finally absolved and released.
The two accused were Luis Marileo and Patricio Queipul, who had been charged with a series of fires carried out in the zone of La Araucanía in October 2009. The two youths, then under 18 years of age were acquitted by the Criminal Trial Court of Angol. Seven adults had always been released in respect of this incident but Marileo and Queipul had to remain in provisional detention for approximately a year.
Both were able to leave prison thanks to the confession of Raúl Castro Antipán, a protected prosecution witness who admitted that he had carried out four incendiary attacks and other acts described as "terrorist" while acting as an undercover agent of the Carabineros, with the aim of incriminating Mapuche leaders.
The journalist and writer Pedro Cayuqueo, one of the various complainants about this situation, affirmed that "for many people in the south of Chile what is happening with this protected prosecution witness is nothing new" and he described the history of those trials in which Antipán had taken part. "This man was recruited as an informant of the Carabineros while he was a young student activist linked to various pro Mapuche groups. He ended up as a civilian infiltrator of certain organizations or movements", explained Cayuqueo.
In the opinion of the journalist, there is a political intent behind the persecution of Mapuche militants, determined in application of the Anti-Terrorist Law and challenged by various Human Rights organizations at the national and international level. "The application of this law violates due process and the procedural guarantees of Mapuche citizens. What better proof of this can there be than, for example, the use in this case of protected witnesses who are confessed criminals", Cayuqueo pointed out.
The confession of the agent Antipán has revealed the crude operations carried out by the Carabineros against the Mapuche people and confirmed the truth of the complaints submitted for some years by Human Rights and civil society organizations in connection with the use of infiltrators to provoke disturbances that facilitate the arrest of social leaders.
[Source: Infonews, Bs As, 15Feb14. Translation into English from the original Spanish version carried out by Equipo Nizkor on 20Feb14]
 | This document has been published on 21Feb14 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |