International

Murderers of Mapuche youth sentenced to prison in Argentina

Photo: @pietragallahora

November 30 |

The Federal Oral Court of General Roca in Argentina sentenced Wednesday the prefects involved in the murder of young Mapuche Rafael Nahuel, who was attacked during a police operation on November 25, 2017.

Said court on Wednesday sentenced the five prefects who were involved in the death of Rafael Nahuel, the 22-year-old Mapuche youth, to sentences of four and a half and five years in prison.

Six years later, the entity sentenced prefect Sergio Cavia, author of the shooting, to five years in prison for the crime of “aggravated homicide committed in excess of legitimate self-defense”.

The prefects Francisco Javier Pintos, Juan Ramón Obregón, Carlos Valentín Sosa and Sergio García received sentences of four and a half years as they were considered necessary participants in the murder of Nahuel during “a special operation” of the Albatros Group, carried out in 2017 in the Mapuche community Lafken Winkul Mapu, in the locality of Villa Mascardi, located in the department of Bariloche.

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After more than a year of court hearings, the court has announced its verdict in a hearing, where in addition to the sentences issued, the five convicted were also handed a seven-year disqualification from holding public office.

“We are not happy with the ruling but we value that there was a conviction, the court considered that the five committed a crime, and we must remember that the political authority at that time had vindicated their actions, that same person (Patricia Bullrich) will be the official of the area as of December 10, so they were defending five criminals”, shared the lawyer Mariano Przybylski, plaintiff of the Secretariat of Human Rights.

In this sense, Patricia Bullrich had stated on that occasion that the authorities had acted legally and legitimately.

For her part, Nahuel’s mother, Graciela Salvo expressed that “justice is making fun of the family, they do not feel our pain, the prefects are going to continue free as if nothing had happened, they did not even come to show their faces after having entered the community and having shot my son, Rafael Nahuel, in the back, as a mother I will continue asking for justice because we are not satisfied with the sentence given to the Albatros”.

Not even to hear the verdict did the five members of the Albatros Group of the Argentine Naval Prefecture show up in person at the hearing. Sergio Cavia, Francisco Javier Pintos, Juan Ramón Obregón, Carlos Valentín Sosa and Sergio García were present remotely, as was the case throughout the trial.

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Rafael Nahuel’s family, represented by attorneys Rubén Marigo and Ezequiel Palavecino, had requested that the aggravation for “racial hatred” be added to the case and that it be considered a case of “institutional violence comparable to State terrorism”.

The 22-year-old Mapuche young man was killed from behind during the pursuit with firearms of the Albatros of the Prefecture, on November 25, 2017, two days after the violent eviction of his community Lafken Winkul Mapu of Villa Mascardi, in the framework of a case initiated by National Parks for usurpation.

Related Topics:Mapuche Rafael Nahuel Mapuche youth

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