Chile’s Mapuche prisoner ends hunger strike after 118 days

SANTIAGO – Ariel Trangol, the last of four Mapuche activists, has brought an end to his hunger strike after 118 days in protest of charges under Chile’s anti-terrorism law, according to Chilean authorities.

Ariel Trangol, his three brothers Benito, Pablo and Alfredo were accused of leading an arson attack and burning an evangelical church in 2016 in the town of Padre de Las Casas. They claim they are innocent.

Chilean police clash with Mapuche protesters in Santiago

The activists, who have been imprisoned for a year and four months, have not been found guilty or tried.

They are being held under an anti-terrorism bill passed during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, which establishes harsher penalties and that has been applied to the Mapuches for their ancestral struggle in the recovery of their lands.

Tensions in Chile as Mapuche hunger strike reaches 111 days

Benito, Pablo and Alfredo ended the hunger strike on Saturday after Interior Minister Mario Fernandez announced that the government will not use the Anti-terrorism bill against the activists.

Majority in Chile believe Mapuche don’t consider themselves ‘Chilean’

Chile’s largest native ethnic group continues to fight with the government as it tries to regain land lost during Chile’s 19th Century expansion southward into the Mapuche-held territory.