Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Letter of Mapuche leader to the newspaper EL MERCURIO, Chile

Source: http://cidsur.cl/2013/02/carta-de-dirigenta-mapuche-a-diario-el-mercurio/
Posted on February 24, 2013 by CidSurWednesday February 20, 2013

Dear Editor,

I am the wife of Luis Tralcal Quidel, and I am writing to refute the article published on Sunday,
January 6, in Reports, with the title "Luis Tralcal Quidel, 'the toughest' of the Vilcún sector".

First, I want to express our annoyance as family and community for your continued attitude to involve my partner in different events or situations that the prosecution has failed to prove in the different trials that have been held against him. As a consequence of this, a year and a half he was in preventive detention under the Law for Terrorist Behavior which forced him to start a hunger strike for 84 days with 34 other community members who demanded a fair trial and due process.

The truth is that all trials that the prosecution has taken to the courts have ended in acquittals. In your report you suggest that in 2006, Luis starred in "an arson attack on the Ranch Las Praderas", but he was acquitted in that trial, and they could not establish whether the fire was intentional or accidental.

In the same article it is stated that Luis went outside of Chile to train under the leadership of the FARC. On this it is important to note that the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies summoned the head of the PDI of the time, and he said that there did not exist sufficient evidence to raise said allegation.

When my husband was arrested in August 2009 in a raid in the Yeupeko sector, one of the alleged proofs to incriminate him was ammunition and explosive detonating cord. The one who conducted those proceedings was the military prosecutor Aparicio Pinto, who, after investigating, rejected such evidence for initiating a trial. However, the prosecution took the same evidence to hold a trial against him for the crime of illegal possession of ammunition and explosives, which eventually also ended by acquitting him.

Lisette Melillán

Link: http://www.elmercurio.com/blogs/2013/02/20/9422/Sentencias-absolutorias.aspx
 
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment