Four Mapuche prisoners participating in a hunger strike were moved to a hospital on Wednesday. The hunger strike has lasted 44 days thus far in the Agol prison in the south of Chile.

According to the Mapuche website, “the inmates have lost up to 13 kilograms and their physical state has deteriorated”.

The prisoners are demanding a revision of their sentences, immediate demilitarisation of the Mapuche land and the release of all indigenous political prisoners. They are from an indigenous community in an area of Mapuche conflict between the indigenous people and farmer and forestry companies over ownership of ancestral lands.

Paulino Levipán and Danel Leminao were sentenced to 10 years and one day for the attempted murder of a police officer. Rodrigo Montoya and Eric Montoya were sentenced to 541 days for illegally carrying a firearm and are awaiting trial.

Mapuche community members claim that the Gendarmerie are planning to force feed the protestors as they filed an injunction several days ago to protect the health of young people.

Chileans are reminded of the 2010 Mapuche hunger strike that ended by Church intervention after 86 days.

Mapuche representatives in Santiago marched on Wednesday demanding freedom for the prisoners. The crowd was broken up by police tear gas and water cannon trucks.

In an attempt to alleviate overcrowded prisons, the Chilean government began to release and deport foreign prisoners who had mostly been sentenced on drug trafficking charges.

At 11am, 82 Peruvian women and 41 men were transported to the Chacalluta border crossing with Peru where they underwent medical checks and agreed to not return to Chile for 10 years.

The Santiago Times reports that 14 more Peruvians received official pardon from the Chilean government and will be released on Wednesday. Another 122 prisoners will be set free on Thursday, bringing the total number of freed prisoners to 258.

Prisoners are being released as part of an amnesty act passed by Chilean Congress in April. At the time that the legislation was approved by the House of Representatives, the prison population was estimated to be 52,000, and prisons were said to be over capacity by 60%.

In total, 1,066 foreign nationals, a large majority of whom are Bolivian and Peruvian, will be sent to their countries to finish serving their sentences.

At least 131 people taken hostage this weekend by Aracaju jail prisoners were released after several hours of negotiations.

Around 400 inmates were said to have started the revolt this weekend, armed with knives and stolen rifles. Their motives were said to be better living conditions, better treatment from guards, and more respect for their female visitors.

A major complaint was in the prison’s undeniable overcrowding. According to various sources, the Aracaju jail is housing nearly 4,000 inmates, despite only being suited to hold 2,000.

According to Univision, the prisoners claimed they were abused and “tortured” in prison, and specifically demanded they be allowed to smoke in their cells. During the riot, two security dogs were killed, mattresses were set on fire, and other penitentiary facilities were destroyed.

Most of the hostages taken were relatives of the inmates who happened to be visiting at the time, and the remaining three were on-duty security guards. All were said to have been released unharmed; however, it is unclear how many of the prisoners’ demands will be met.

“After 24 hours of negotiations, the rebellion reached its end,” Sergipe public safety secretary Joao Eloy said in a statement. “We did all that was possible and reasonable and will investigate their complaints.”

However, Eloy added that some of the demands, such as the removal of the prison’s governor, were unacceptable.

Five of the inmates said to be the leaders of the riot have been transferred to other penitentiaries. According to BBC News, more than 150 officers were sent to the facility to help deal with the crisis.

Cuba has announced plans to release 2,900 prisoners, in what the country says is an act of goodwill in response to numerous requests from relatives and religious institutions.

Those freed will include 86 foreign prisoners from 25 countries, however, US citizen Alan Gross will not be among them. Goss, 62, was given a 15-year sentence in March of 2010 for bringing internet equipment to the Jewish community in Cuba.

The decision was also made in anticipation of the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XV scheduled for next spring.

In a speech to the National Assembly, Cuban President Raul Castro said the action demonstrated the “generosity and strength” of the Cuban Revolution.

Authorities said that prisoners who have been convicted of serious crimes such as murder, espionage or drug trafficking, will not be part of the amnesty.

Leader of the Cuban opposition group Ladies in White, Laura Pollan, died yesterday at age 63, after complications from a respiratory virus and dengue fever.

The group was founded in 2003 in an effort to free political prisoners. Pollan’s crusade began after her own husband, Hector Maseda, was one of 75 men jailed for accusations of receiving money from foreign countries to fund counterrevolutionary activities.

Some prisoners, which included activists, social commentators and opposition leaders, received sentences for as long as 28 years.

The European Union responded by freezing relations with Cuba for over a year. In 2005, European Parliament honored Ladies in White with the Sakharov prize, a prestigious human rights award, although the Cuban government refused to allow Pollan to travel to Europe to accept the award.

The organization called themselves Ladies in White because of the white attire they wore and the gladiolas they carried every Sunday in Havana during marches against the government. The group started with a dozen women and grew to about 30 members.

The Cuban government eventually freed all 75 men. The last two were freed 21 March, 2011, the same day Castro announced his retirement as Head of the Communist Party.

The Chilean justice said they would not rule the possibility of reclassifying crimes, accusing the Mapuche prisoners in the country. Suspects are charged with crimes under the Anti-terrorism law.

National Prosecutor, Sabas Chahuán, stated that the Public Prosecutor could reclassify the terrorist crimes associated with the Mapuche cause after the oral proceedings against the villagers.

Chahuán stressed that the judicial body is not able to reclassify the charges because they have already been implemented since the Court is obliged to enforce the law.

It would be possible after the trial, where there is a closure, to call to reclassify by members of the court.

However, the prosecutor refused to apply this criteria in the case of the attack against prosecutor Mario Elgueta and considered “a terrorist attack peppering a prosecutor with 300 shots in the procession.”

Human Right’s lawyer, Alberto Espinoza, said this is excellent news and is in line with what the Government is negotiating with the villagers.

Espinoza accompanied the Mapuche spokespeople in their negotiations with the Government during the hunger strike.

The Mapuche spokesman of Angol, Rodrigo Curipán, considered that the announcement seems confusing to leave aside the case of Elgueta. He said that none of the crimes that they are charged with seem to derive from terrorist character.

More than 30 Mapuche prisoners in different Chilean jails held a hunger strike for nearly three months in opposition to the application of the Anti-terrorism Act.

They decided to lift the protest after the Government’s compromise to reclassify their cases.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radio.

Luis Vicat, downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina (Photo: Anaïs Plancoulaine)

“Crime is like fashion. It experiences trends which catch on quickly and which move faster than the police, the government or the state. Secuestros virtuales (fake kidnappings) are the ‘hottest new craze’ on the Argentine crime scene.”
Ex-Chief Inspector of the Buenos Aires Police, Luis Vicat, describes the rapid rate at which this criminal phenomenon is sweeping the city. Vicat is now a lawyer and analyst of the science of security. After 17 years of studying the complexities of crime in Buenos Aires, he offers a pessimistic insight into the seemingly unresolvable prevalence of fake kidnappings.

The trend setters

Vicat explains: “This mode of crime hit Argentina about eight years ago.” Fake kidnappings were initially very isolated incidents: prisoners called people from jail, pretending to have sequestered a loved one. As a ransom, they demanded the codes of hundreds of pesos worth of pre-pay mobile phone cards, taking advantage of their victims’ emotional vulnerability and subsequent likelihood to comply.

The problem escalated during the last three years. In 2008, between 20 and 40 cases were reported daily in Buenos Aires. Furthermore, as the incidents have become more common, so has their severity. Prisoners are no longer the only ones calling. “The integral instrument in these crimes is such a basic and necessary tool, yet when misused, things can become incredibly dangerous.”

Vicat is referring to telephones, with which the perpetrators call places of residence, either planned or randomly chosen. The success of these crimes relies on the exchange of key personal details. As the voice at the end of the line identifies the absence of a member of the household, the victim, in a state of shock, is more likely to answer “clarification questions”. They accidentally offer information that the criminals use to make the scenario as believable as possible. The culprits demand a ransom in the form of mobile phone credit, or a package of money or valuables, deposited at a defined location.

(Photo: Beatrice Murch)

The fashion victims

Susana was a victim of a secuestro virtual. Her son, Gustavo, gave his contact details to a promoter claiming to offer a shopping discount card, outside a cinema. “They perfectly described his appearance, clothing and the friend he was with,” Susana recalls. “I couldn’t get in touch with him – of course, he switched off his phone in the cinema.”

She was told to take $1000 to a bar within the following half hour. On arrival, a man forced entrance into her car, ordering her to drive to a nearby villa, where she was robbed of the money, her mobile phone and the car. “It was a horrendous end to a traumatic ordeal.”

However, fake kidnappers adopt various approaches to target their victims and execute their crime:

Marcelo was driving in centre when he received a call from a man claiming to have kidnapped his wife. He warned that if he did not comply with their demands, he would kill her. The kidnappers told him they were following and watching him in a white van. Looking behind him, Marcelo could see a number of white vans in the lanes. Nonetheless, he followed his instructions, stopping at a kiosk to purchase $500 of mobile phone credit, before reading the cards’ codes down the phone. He returned home to find his wife unharmed and unaware of her earlier ‘kidnap’.

Alejandra lives in an apartment near Constitución with six other international students. One afternoon, a man called their landline, identifying that one member of the household was absent. Alejandra recalls: “It was true, Aurelie was the only person who was not there, although we thought she was at work.” When she confirmed the name of the missing housemate, the man told Alejandra he was with Aurelie, had a gun to her head and would pull the trigger unless she deposited money in a bin nearby. “We were petrified. I called the police, who told us to do nothing. They said this was common, and unless the guy called back, it was probably a secuestro virtual.” Within an hour, Aurelie returned home from work, oblivious. However Alejandra remains shaken: “This man knew the apartment’s location. Of course, he could have just trawled through a phonebook; but he could also have watched and researched for some time, working out that one of us was out each Wednesday afternoon. No one was hurt and no money changed hands, but it’s still scary.”

In October, the Buenos Aires minister of education, Mariano Narodowski, was a victim of a fake kidnapping when someone called his home, alleging to have sequestered his wife. Narodowski, who was opening a cinema in Constitución, rushed to his house in the Boedo neighbourhood, where he found his family together and safe. As soon as the police suspected the claims were not genuine, they had located and assembled the family members, to ensure that the incident was, in fact, a secuestro virtual.

Got credit? (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

New look, deep roots

“When someone tells you they have kidnapped your child, you don’t think rationally,” Vicat points out. “You are defenceless to being tricked into believing or doing anything.” However, there is another factor that explains why secuestros virtuales have become “one of the most common small crimes in Buenos Aires”.

After the staggering number of kidnappings that pervade Argentina’s recent history, it is unsurprising that such calls have a profound effect. With reference to the ‘disappearances’ of the 1976-83 Dirty War, Vicat asserts: “We have a complicated past. There are certain things ingrained in our collective memory which will influence the way we react in these situations.”

In vogue and out of control

The problem deepens. “Secuestros virtuales are a fad because criminals take advantage not only of our emotional weakness, but also of the weakness of the state of security,” he claims. He describes the “reactive concept of security” held by the Buenos Aires police force, criticising the authorities’ inability to deal with such crime until after it has happened.

Vicat believes there are not enough preventative measures in place and the public are not well enough informed of crimes which may affect them. He also laments that although there are more armed patrol officers on the streets of the capital, their training is neither well-structured nor sufficiently intensive or flexible. “Criminals see opportunity and they seize it.”

Cramping their style

However, the police maintain that they “are doing all they can to make Buenos Aires a safer place.” In terms of fake kidnappings, a system has been installed which notifies the reciever that an incoming call is from a prison. The dangers of social networking websites are publicised in schools, as the police warn young people that indiscriminate availability of their personal details can lead to the smooth execution of a secuestro virtual.

Luis Vicat has published a guide to avoiding such crimes, which he has made easily accessible on the internet. He highlights the importance of withholding information in unfamiliar situations, identifying unknown callers, and being wary of reverse-charge call requests. Vicat champions the principles of precaution, discretion and prevention, opining that if we heighten our awareness of certain crimes, we minimise our susceptibility to them. Perhaps in this way, we will be able to push them out of fashion.