Blog, Latin America: Week in Review

Chile: Jailed Mapuche Leaders Ready to Confront State

January 17, 2012 By Staff

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Indigenous Mapuche activists jailed in the southern Chilean region of Araucania said Monday that they were prepared for a confrontation with the government in order to reclaim their native lands. In an interview with the AFP from his jail cell, Ramon Llanquileo, one of four Mapuche leaders belonging to the Arauco Malleco Coordination (CAM), also denied the Chilean government’s accusation that the CAM had intentionally set forest fires in Carahue and Quillon, killing seven firefighters and two civilians in early January. Llanquileo and three others were accused and sentenced for a violent attack on a prosecutor’s convoy in 2008, but charges of terrorism against the men were later dropped. “The CAM recovers Mapuche land but we don’t attack people or provoke fires,” Llaniquileo said. However, the group does claim that it occupies land and has sabotaged some large forestry companies in the region.

Read more from the AFP.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

  • Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians are suffering from a long drought and food shortages in their home state of Chihuahua, with six people reportedly dying of malnutrition.
  • Three women were detained outside of Guadalajara, Mexico, on suspicion of involvement in a child-trafficking ring, adding to the four women detained last week.
  •  Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County said he would appeal a federal judge’s ruling blocking his employees from detaining people based on the suspicion that they are in the U.S. illegally.

Caribbean

Central America

Andes

Southern Cone

Image: cÁmARa AccióN @ Flickr.

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