January 30, 2008

Deal reached for jailed Chilean activist
Roberto Troncoso, Patricia's father, with backers of his daughter last
week at the hospital in Chillan.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mapuche30jan30,1,6203204.story

Patricia Troncoso, a champion of Indian rights, is to complete her
sentence for arson at a work camp, in a church-mediated accord.
By Claudia Lagos and Patrick J. McDonnell, Special to The Times

SANTIAGO, CHILE -- The Chilean government defended its decision Tuesday

to back a church-brokered agreement that ended a months-long hunger
strike by a jailed Indian-rights activist.

A top official in the office of President Michelle Bachelet said
Patricia Troncoso was not granted a pardon and would serve out her
10-year sentence -- albeit in a work camp and not in a prison, and with

weekend leaves.

"She obtained nothing more than the law permitted," Jose Antonio
Viera-Gallo, general secretary to the presidency, told a radio station
here.

Troncoso has served about half her sentence under anti-terrorism laws
for setting fire to a forestry plot -- a charge she denied. The arson
was one of many such attacks by Mapuche Indian militants against
corporate targets in a low-level conflict that has raised tensions in
southern Chile, the Mapuche ancestral homeland.

The hunger strike has focused attention on the plight of the Mapuche
minority. Activists say that despite Chile's economic growth, the
Indians have been left largely landless, impoverished and victims of
police repression.

The government rejected Troncoso's original demands, including the
release of Mapuche "political prisoners" and the "demilitarization" of
Mapuche zones.

Under the deal, Troncoso, who is not a Mapuche, will serve out the
remaining five years of her sentence in a police work camp and will be
allowed to go home on weekends. Two imprisoned Mapuche militants
received similar benefits as part of the pact worked out with the help
of a Roman Catholic bishop.

In addition, Bachelet named a new commissioner charged with finding
ways
to improve life for Chile's Indian minority. Census figures show that
less than 5% of the nation's residents describe themselves as
indigenous.

The deal immediately came under attack from the conservative opposition

to Bachelet, who heads the governing center-left coalition.

"You can't pretend the law applies in some parts of the country and not

in other parts," Sen. Jovino Novoa said here in the capital, calling
the
pact a reward for violence.

Troncoso, 38, ended her fast Monday, 111 days after she began taking
only liquids. She is being held at a hospital in the city of Chillan,
240 miles south of Santiago.

Last week, police doctors fearing for her life began providing her with

intravenous nutrients. Friends and her father described Troncoso as
weak
but lucid.

patrick.mcdonnell

@latimes.com
Special correspondent Lagos reported from Santiago and Times staff
writer McDonnell from Buenos Aires.




Mapuche International Solidarity Network
mapucheinternationalsolidarity@gmail.com