MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile's Gov't appeals parole granted to Mapuche leader Jones-Huala

Jones-Huala reportedly has plans to return to Argentina

Chilean authorities have fined an appeal against the court ruling which granted parole to Mapuche leader Facundo Jones-Huala citing that “the convicted person does not meet the legal and regulatory requirements” to be eligible for the benefit, according to the brief from the Ministry of the Interior.

The Chilean government has demanded to the Temuco Court of Appeals that the measure be revoked and that the Mapuche Ancestral Resistance (RAM) leader be placed once again under arrest.

The filing has been signed by Undersecretary of the Interior Juan Francisco Galli, who claimed the benefit went “exactly in the opposite direction” of what citizens demanded of magistrates.

Galli insisted there waas no “illegal or arbitrary act in the contested resolution of the Parole Commission,” which had previously denied such a benefit to Jones-Huala, who has actually never “recognized the crime committed” or its seriousness. “He has never measured the damage done, and therefore his behavior in a sustained manner is refractory to the values of respect for the rights of people,” Galli wrote regarding the burning of a house in 2013 and the illegal possession of a firearm.

Jones-Huala, who was born in Bariloche and is therefore an Argentine national, plans to return to Argentina, from where he had been extradited in 2018.

Defense attorneys Karina Riquelme and Patricia Cuevas Suárez had claimed Jones Huala was a model prisoner who attended classes and was about to start third year of high school. They also highlighted his good behavior as an inmate.

Finally, the Temuco Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Jones-Huala thus reversing the Parole Commission's decision. Argentina's ambassador to Chile Rafael Bielsa had also appeared on behalf of Jones-Huala before the magistrates.

Argentina's Foreign Ministry said Bielsa's attitude was common practice in the case of nationals arrested abroad, while the opposition claimed the Government of President Alberto Fernández actually sided with violent groups such as RAM.

After being released, Jones-Huala made statements in which he thanked and supported the various “resistance” groups of native peoples.