CHILE – This Wednesday the leader of the Arauco Malleco Coordination (CAM), Héctor Llaitul, was arrested by the Investigative Police (PDI), in the commune of Cañete, Biobío Region.
What did the Prosecutor’s Office say?
According to information from the Prosecutor’s Office, Llaitul was arrested for crimes associated with the State Security Law due to an investigation initiated in 2020 and the complaint filed by the Government.
It was the Guarantee Court of Temuco who authorized the arrest warrant for the leader of the CAM for three crimes of the State Security Law, corresponding to theft of wood, usurpation and attempt against authority, and for which he will be formalized.
What was known about the CAM leader?
On August 17, the Ministry of the Interior presented an extension of the complaint against the leader of the Arauco-Malleco Coordinating Committee (CAM), requesting a series of investigative measures for his statements on the theft of wood and “sabotage”.
It should be noted that Llaitul is the subject of a complaint for crimes related to the State Security Law, which was filed in 2018.
The Arauco-Malleco Coordinating Committee (CAM) launched an appeal to its members following the Chilean government’s plan to militarize the southern part of the country where violence escalates almost daily. CAM leader Hector Llaitul criticized Boric’s proposal to set up an “intermediate state,” which would allow sending troops to guard public infrastructure amid increasing violence with roadblocks, fires, and shootings.
”The intermediate state is nothing more than a new state of exception. That is to say, the henchmen militiamen once again deployed throughout the Wallmapu (Mapuche territory) guarding the interests of big capital,“ said Llaitul, who called his own ethnic group ”to prepare the forces, to organize armed resistance for autonomy, for the territory and autonomy for the Mapuche nation.“
The CAM is the most relevant organization of the Mapuche autonomist movement in the last 20 years. It has carried out numerous direct actions since 1997. Its most recent attack was the burning of three lorries in the Araucanía region.
Boric’s initiative is a way to avoid insisting on constitutional states of exception to which the Piñera administration had repeatedly resorted. But the President’s idea as such is not provided for in the Constitution. Therefore, it would require legal amendments before being set in place. Nevertheless, it has been already criticized by numerous Mapuche communities.
The so-called ”Mapuche conflict” in southern Chile is a territorial dispute pinning the Mapuche groups against the federal government and large economic groups exploiting lands considered ancestral by the indigenous people. Boric has also started a plan to buy the land gradually and hand it back over to its primitive owners.
The complaint requests a series of proceedings such as:
That the Special Investigations Brigade of the Investigative Police be sent a broad order to investigate for the purpose of clarifying the facts.
That the digital media “Werken Noticias” and “Chile Today” be sent a complete copy of any audiovisual record they keep of the interview with Héctor Llaitul published on July 20, 2022 on the Youtube platform.
In addition, it is requested that both digital media, indicated in the previous point, send a list containing the individualization of the persons who participated in the elaboration and production of the aforementioned interview, indicating their full names and contact information.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office is requested to locate and summon to testify, as witnesses, the persons identified in said list.
That Boris van der Sperk, who would have conducted the interview published by the digital media “Werkén” and “Chile Today” on the Youtube platform, be located and summoned to testify. That the Criminalistics Laboratory of the Investigative Police be sent to carry out an expert analysis of all the audiovisual records sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office by virtue of the proceedings indicated in the previous points, which contain the statements of Llaitul, contained in the interview published on the Youtube platform, dated July 20, 2022. To investigate the connection of the statements made by the defendant on May 11, July 21 and July 25, all of 2022, and which motivate the present extension, with the complaints filed by the Presidential Delegation of the Araucanía Region.
