Argentinian judge decides to extradite Mapuche leader to Chile

BUENOS AIRES – The federal justice of Argentine’s Bariloche city has decided to extradite Facundo Jones Huala, leader of the Mapuche community Pu Lof in Resistencia de Cushamen, to Chile.

The announcement was followed by protests and detentions in Bariloche.

Huala is accused of setting a fire in a Chilean stallholder’s home in the PisuPisue community in January 2013, carrying weapons and ammunition, and entering and leaving the country illegally, for which he declared himself innocent.

This is the second time he is accused under the same grounds for which he has been in prison since June 28th, 2017.

The decision of Justice Gustavo Villanueva is not final; therefore Huala will remain in the jail of the city of Esquel until it is kept as definite or revoked by the Court, his lawyer Sonia Ivanoff told the newspaper Pagina 12.