Original article: «La Operación Huracán no ha terminado»: Columna de Héctor Llaitul

«Operation Hurricane is Far from Over»: Héctor Llaitul’s Commentary

Following the verdict issued by the Temuco Court in the so-called Hurricane Case, which reveals one of the most serious police frames since the end of the military civil dictatorship, we want to highlight that beyond the conviction of two generals and the operational heads of the intelligence unit, this resolution does not directly establish or point to the responsibility of the political authorities involved in this intelligence operation against the fighting Mapuche movement.

It must be absolutely clear that this operation was directed against the Autonomist and Revolutionary Mapuche Movement, where not only was evidence fabricated, and information manipulated leading to the detention of Mapuche community members primarily based on false messages, but it also aimed to distort the true nature of the historical conflict.

We refer specifically to the responsibility of Michelle Bachelet’s government and her Undersecretary of the Interior, Mahmud Aleuy, who are the direct agents in implementing this repressive policy of persecution.

In addition to this omission, despite the fact that the idea of an illicit association for framing evidence against community members could not be legally established – which would have implications for other cases – there is another aspect that raises significant distrust relating to a sort of collusion that the state institutionality has offered to businesses, which are directly involved in our struggle for territorial and political claims.

A negotiation that provides stability for the wealthy to continue plundering the ancestral Wallmapu.

Therefore, we can deduce and affirm that from the very beginning, the objective of this intelligence operation was to attempt to distort and tarnish the just and century-old struggle of our Nation People, inventing a supposed crossover of communication and information among the various expressions of the Mapuche cause.

We also believe that the responsibilities in the Hurricane case are not limited to the political, police, and prosecution authorities.

The media dimension, the actions of large media outlets serving the powerful, have also not faced criminal charges, with pro-establishment and right-wing media belonging to major economic groups that contributed to legitimizing a fraudulent and criminal operation. Journalism that, as in the times of the dictatorship, has become, through action or negligence, an ally of a state-business plot.

A Repressive and Malicious State Policy

We believe that the background of fabricating evidence responds to a state policy aimed primarily at persecuting our organization, particularly the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco – CAM and its historical leadership.

It was not only about demonizing it but also about distorting its goals, scopes, demands, and political actions, aiming to undermine the process of transformations against extractive policies and the plundering of ancestral territory, to develop a proposal for the reconstruction of the Mapuche Nation based primarily on a project to rearticulate communities with an autonomy and self-determination perspective, a process grounded in an anti-capitalist, anti-oligarchic, and anti-imperialist praxis.

In this context, the direction of this framing was very clear, aimed at attacking a leadership consistent with the revolutionary proposals from the Mapuche realm. This is why we assert that the ramifications of Hurricane persist because leaders like us, who continue the path of territorial and revolutionary political struggle, are now imprisoned by the Chilean state.

It is essential to emphasize that with the determination of those responsible in the framing in the Hurricane case, the state’s repressive policy is very clearly established and continues with all previous governments and the current one which, in our view, is the worst of all for leaving the far-right a very real opportunity for extermination policies against our people.

A New Justice, As Much As Possible

This judicial resolution aims to establish justice; however, the truth is that it only favors the usurpers, attempting to cover up who ordered the framing, the political power of the moment that went unscathed.

With this verdict, only a few will receive lesser sentences or be pardoned, despite the evidence and facts depicting the actions of the state as a whole.

It is the state institutionality that continued and never ceased its persecution against the Autonomist and Revolutionary Mapuche Movement. Let us remember that under Piñera, complaints were filed against Mapuche werkenes, which Boric expanded; that under Piñera, a State of Exception was imposed, and under Boric, these have become permanent in Wallmapu, consolidating the militarization so long desired and applauded by the far-right.

The carabineros involved will not face severe penalties as has occurred with the weichafe, who have been sentenced to over 40 years in prison. Justice has not even been served against those who have shot our weichafe in the back.

Another significant aspect is that this government, alongside establishing greater repression, practically gave the green light to the same state organs and agents to devise and execute other intelligence operations, further processing and condemning the leaders of the CAM. Therefore, we believe that, currently, with the militarization of Wallmapu and the new order imposed, impunity among those repressing the Mapuche cause will prevail.

We Are Their ‘Internal Enemy’

Through the experience of the Hurricane case, there is a clear consequence and projection because, despite the conviction of some state agents, including carabineros generals, the logic and repressive doctrine remained and will remain in Wallmapu.

Evidence of this is that despite the background and protracted duration of the Hurricane case, this government has deepened the repression and political persecution against the fighting movement, re-establishing the national security doctrine and defining the Mapuche nation as its “internal enemy.”

It was after the Hurricane framing that Piñera’s government presented charges against the main leaders of the CAM, primarily against me, (since I had bypassed the Hurricane framing, the primary target of this intelligence operation), a lawsuit that was expanded under Boric and resulted in the arbitrary arrest order and sentencing without due process.

Today, the prosecution of a police framing meant to pursue the actions of the Mapuche movement is being presented merely as a misbehavior, when the underlying intent was and remains to legitimize persecution and repression of a political proposal for the liberation and reconstruction of the Mapuche Nation.

The Hurricane Case Continues

In our opinion, the Hurricane case, as we mentioned, is far from over, persisting at least in its logic and corrupt practices.

It should be remembered that during Piñera’s second government, Luis Hermosilla advised a form of penal persecution in the lawsuits against the Mapuche movement, which was compounded by racist prosecutors and a corrupt police force (such as in Héctor Espinoza’s case).

Later, under the current Boric government, the same prosecutors involved in the Hurricane case have remained in their posts, pursuing militants of the Mapuche cause.

To conclude, I must take a consistent stance and assert that I was sentenced under the same repressive logic and political policy derived from the Hurricane case; it was certainly in a more meticulous and directed manner, but with the same method of a framing. Because the aim was to achieve a conviction by any means, thus I was subjected to the State Security law, a regulation that allows political persecution, resulting in 15 years in prison merely for expressing opinions.

I was also convicted for crimes associated with this law in events where evidence was indeed fabricated and manipulated (using artificial intelligence) to ensure judges, in a racist manner and under the pressure of political power and business interests, sentenced me to long prison terms.

In summary, it is clearly established that this was a political conviction, motivated by state reasons and business pressure, the same that mandated the Hurricane case.

It is worth noting and concluding that despite the persecution, militarization, and intelligence operations, the struggle and resistance of the autonomist Mapuche communities continues.

Héctor Llaitul.-