Santiago – The Catholic archbishop of the southern Chilean city of Temuco, Manuel Camilo Vial, on Tuesday withdrew as a guarantor for four hunger-striking Mapuche Indian prisoners who are demanding that their 10-year terrorism sentences be overturned.
The prelate personally made the announcement of his withdrawal to journalists after the four prisoners, who are being monitored in a Temuco hospital, 672 kilometers (416 miles) south of Santiago, refused to meet with him.
The brothers Juan and Jaime Marileo, Juan Huenulao and Patricia Troncoso said they could not meet with Vial because they were speaking with other Indian leaders to determine what their future course of action would be, said the archbishop.
Vial, along with Socialist Senators Alejandro Navarro and Jaime Naranjo, as well as Jose Cariqueo, the “lonko” or chief of a Mapuche community in the area, on May 12 offered to be guarantors for an agreement between the prisoners and the government to speed up the national legislature’s consideration of a special law that could grant the four inmates parole.
The prisoners, who had been on a hunger strike for up to 63 days, agreed to end their protest in exchange for the promise that Congress would consider the bill, but on May 20 they said they thought lawmakers were moving too slowly on the matter – the legislature had gone into its scheduled recess – and resumed their hunger strike.
At the hospital entrance, Vial said he was “saddened” by the Mapuches’ decision to restart their hunger strike.
The situation has become more complicated because now the authority of the guarantors overseeing the agreement has been removed, Vial said.
“I’m no longer a guarantor because there is one party that withdrew its confidence from me, but I’m a pastor of the diocese and (among the prisoners) there are a couple of Mapuches who are Catholic,” he added, indicating that he would continue to be concerned about the group.
“I’m interested in the Mapuche cause and in helping in any way I can, but always within a framework, with respect and mutual confidence. If they don’t respect the agreements and one’s word, it’s very difficult to talk,” he said, adding that “at this time, God is the only one who can help provide a solution.”
The four Mapuches each were sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for violating the country’s anti-terrorism laws. They were found guilty of setting fire in 2001 to 100 hectares (250 acres) of woodlands owned by a logging company, a crime that is considered terrorist activity under Chilean law.
The sentence handed down against the group also required them to pay an $825,000 fine to the affected firm.
The prisoners’ decision to resume their hunger strike has been questioned by the other guarantors and even by their lawyer, Alejandra Arrianza, who called it “an error.”
The Chilean government, meanwhile, has said clearly that it would not allow the Indians’ lives to become endangered and would force-feed them, if necessary.
