MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Jones Huala arrested for encouraging acts of violence

The Bariloche-born “Jones Huala is once again detained by the forces of law and order,” Bullrich underlined after his arrest

Mapuche Ancestral Resistance (RAM) leader Facundo Jones Huala was arrested in the Patagonian city of El Bolsón late Sunday by the Argentine Federal Police, following an order from the Bariloche Federal Prosecutor's Office for public intimidation, incitement to collective violence, apology for crime, and criminal association.

He made statements in this regard during the presentation in Trevelin, Chubut, of his book, “Entre Rejas, antipoesía incendiaria” (Behind Bars, Arsonist Antipoetry), when he endorsed sabotage and attacks. “I vindicate the sabotage and incendiary attacks on the infrastructure of the capitalist system, of the transnationals, of the landowners. But we have never attacked our environment or the people. They say that we set fire to the forests where our people live. All lies. We have never done it and never would do it,” he was quoted as saying at the event.

Argentina's Security Minister Patricia Bullrich celebrated the arrest, labeling RAM a “violent and terrorist organization” and vowing no impunity. Jones Huala, previously expelled from Chile in August 2024 after serving a sentence for a 2013 arson attack, has been linked to RAM's attacks on buildings and vehicles since 2013, though he criticized certain land occupation tactics.

“With us, there is no impunity,” stressed Bullrich, who also insisted that “the Argentines of the south deserve to live in peace and that this time they will not let him go.”