Mapuche Leader Hector Llaitul’s Health Deteriorates in a Chilean Prison
Mapuche leader Hector Llaitul. Photo: X/ @press_mundo
August 15, 2024 Hour: 9:55 am
He is serving a 23-year sentence for alleged crimes of violence, usurpation, wood theft, and attacks on authorities.
On Wednesday, Ernesto Llaitul warned that his father, Hector Llaitul, the Mapuche leader and founder of the Arauco Malleco Coordinator (CAM), is in critical health due to a hunger strike.
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Ernesto held a protest in front of the Regional Directorate of Gendarmerie of Bio Bio to demand that Chilean authorities transfer his father to the Temuco prison, where there is a special unit for Mapuche community members and where his other son, Pelentaro, is being held.
“My father has undergone several hunger strikes that have deteriorated his health. He has chronic conditions like hypertension that have caused thrombosis. A fatal outcome is something that could happen any day,” Ernesto emphasized.
Currently, Hector Llaitul is detained in the Concepcion prison, where he is serving a 23-year sentence for alleged crimes of glorification of violence, usurpation, wood theft, and attacks on authorities.
Over 70 days ago, he began a liquid hunger strike after the sentence against him was issued. Later, on July 29, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal that his lawyers, Josefa Ainardi and Victoria Borquez, filed to overturn the 23-year sentence. On August 8, his lawyers raised concerns about the deterioration of the Indigenous leader’s health, noting that he had lost 26 kg (57 lbs) by that time.
The Association of Relatives of Politically Executed Persons (AFEP) also raised alarms about Hector Llaitul’s fragile health and requested his transfer to the Temuco prison. This request was urgently submitted to Interior Minister Luis Cordero.
The AFEP reminded that the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169 obliges the Chilean State to respect international human rights regulations related to Indigenous peoples and to consider the economic, social, and cultural characteristics of Indigenous peoples when imposing criminal sanctions.
teleSUR/ JF El Ciudadano – Bio Bio