Temucuicui threatens an uprising if they do not return oats, wheat and machinery seized in Ercilla | National

FILE (UNO Agency) | ceded

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“There will be a community uprising. If they don’t let us eat, we won’t let them eat either,” threatened Temucuicui lonko Víctor Queipul. This, as a result of a police procedure in Ercilla, where eight people were arrested following being accused of stealing oats and wheat. The Mapuche community argues that there was a verbal agreement with the owner of the property in question, so it would not be theft.

Members of the Temucuicui Mapuche community threaten a community uprising if they do not return the more than 78,000 kilos of oats and wheat seized in an operation in Ercilla, La Araucanía region.

The group met this Tuesday with the presidential delegate, José Montalva, to assure him that the seizure carried out by the Carabineros in a piece of land in Pailahueque corresponds to an illegal procedure.

The above, they maintain, because there would be a permission, word of mouth, of the owner of the farm in question to sow and later harvest these foods. For this reason, they argue, it would not correspond to a theft.

In addition, they request the return of food and seized machinery, which would belong to service providers. Otherwise, they warn, there will be an uprising of communities.

This is how the lonko from Temucuicui, Víctor Queipul, maintained: “We are not thieves. There will be an uprising of communities, If they don’t let us eat, we won’t let them eat either”.

For his part, the presidential delegate, Jose Montalvapointed out that the information collected in the meeting held with this community will contribute to the investigation.

“What they presented to me was a perspective of the case, an edge of the case,” the authority specified.

According to what was sustained by Víctor Queipul, what was planted would correspond to 150 hectares of wheat and oats. Along these lines, he affirmed, at the time of the seizure of this food, 50 hectares remained to be harvested.