May 06, 2014 | by Lea Katharina Wirz
SANTIAGO — José Antonio Gómez, Chilean Justice Minister met with relatives of the Mapuche prisoners, that are on hunger strike in the prison of Angol.
The prisoners Luis Marileo, from the Cacique José Guiñón community, Cristian Levinao Melinao, from the community of Rayén Mapu and Leonardo Quijón Pereira from Chequenco haven’t been eating for 30 days now and have already lost about 15 kilos.
Photo Credits: HAK3N ON3 via Flickr
The Mapuches are asking to be transfered to a Gendarmerie work and study center and, most importantly, the review of their trials, due to their opinion, that the application of the Antiterrorism Law against them was executed arbitrarily.
Furthermore, there is a request for humanitarian clemency for Llanca José Mariano Tori, who suffers from a terminal illness being incarcerated in the prison of Angol.
After pressure from the prisoner’s families, it was possible to arrange a meeting with the governmental representative minister Gómez.
For one of the relatives, Fredy Marileo, this meeting is a chance to find concrete solutions and sees it not only as a chance for the government to dilate the situation any more. As Marileo said, the reason for the encounter is “more than anything to find a solution to the issue, because we believe that the Government is already fully informed of requests by the peñi(Mapudungun word for brothers), hopefully they do not turn a blind eye on us, as the mayor Huenchumilla did when he visited the prison.”
One of their main arguments is based on a report by the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations, Ben Emmerson, who said that the current legislation is not in conformity with international human rights standards.
“We come to fix this issue, we do not want the Government to continue procrastinating. In that sense we are clear that the Government must have a solution or they have to say yes to all our requests after having the hunger strike by our peñi in Angol prison”, explained Marileo.
Source: I Love Chile