Theft of wood, the mysterious and complex network behind the arrest of the Mapuche leader in Chile

The theft of wood, one of the alleged crimes that led to the arrest this Wednesday of the radical Mapuche leader Héctor Llaitul, is, according to experts, a complex network involving armed groups such as the one led by the prisoner, but also other companies and necessary actors, some of them dedicated to the wood sector.

A net nebula which starts when trucks with large logs are robbed on the road or at field gates, which needs specialized sawmills to reduce the load and brokers for the sale of a product that can only be stored in a very small market.

This network also affects insurance companies and the timber companies themselves, in a labyrinth so intricate that, according to experts, it surpasses radical groups such as the Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM) led by Llaitul and which makes it difficult to disappear soon. term.

“The incidence that these groups could have in the wood theft chain is only part, a role within a number of other roles,” explains Salvador Millaleo, professor at the University of Chile and expert in Mapuche dynamics who has recommended EFE to EFE to the Ministry of the Interior in the first months of Gabriel Boric’s government.

“There are people who provide transportation, who forge papers, who dispose of the wood or even take it out for export. It’s a very long chain where we can even think that part of the public sector is involved,” he adds.

Such a large and sophisticated chain that according to Millaleo “A more complex design of security policies is needed focused on dismantling the gangs “.

Voices of the industry

For Juan José Ugarte, president of the Chilean Timber Corporation (Corma), the arrest is not enough, but it is a fundamental step in the attempt to resolve the ancestral conflict that has faced settlers, landowners and the Chilean state for decades. Mapuche communities and logging multinationals exploiting ancient forests.

“The trick (work) was done by the prosecutor and the police. Justice takes time but it arrives, now the courts must act, for the victims it was incomprehensible that he had not been detained, after publicly confessing his participation in serious crimes such as stealing wood and then acquiring weapons and ammunition to carry out violent attacks, “he said.

“It would be illusory to think that this will stop the actions of these gangs, but we hope this is the beginning of a path that leaves behind the impotence and insecurity with which southern families live every day,” he added.

Mid-campaign tension

The arrest of Llaitul, secretly planned by the Prosecutor’s Office on the basis of a series of alleged crimes dating back to 2020, takes place at a crucial moment in Chile, in the midst of a escalation of the conflict in the south and just 15 days before the plebiscite in which the Chileans decide whether to approve or reject the new constitution.

An arrest that triggered the warnings against possible retaliation and a possible exacerbation of the conflict.

And put on the table the question of whether it will influence the polarized election campaign for consultation, scheduled for September 4.

“This depends a lot on what will happen next, we do not yet know if more arrests will be made or if it is just an operation focused on Llaitul, members of the CAM or others,” Millaleo explains to EFE, before warning that the Mapuche groups combat are very atomized and respond to different dynamics.

“It also depends on the reaction of radical groups, it’s something we have to be careful about. I’m not just referring to the CAM, but the organic ones that are off the hook like the WAM (Weichán Auka Mapu) and others. , not discursive. Which could have a strong impact, or at least relevant when it comes to verifying the climate in the south before the plebiscite, “he says cautiously.

“CAM has a history, a justification that they have worked out in the last 20 years, making their strategy more and more complex. This is part of their strategy, a tool for their political objectives. They do not talk about plurinationality, they are not in favor of the constituent process, they speak of national liberation “, he specifies.

In this sense, the Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, insisted on Thursday that everyone be subject to justice and asked political parties not to politicize the arrest, after one of them took advantage of the opportunity to affirm that with the new constitution Llaitul would be subjected to indigenous justice and not to the Chilean one.

Source: EFE

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