Francisco Facundo Jones Huala, one of the leaders of the Mapuche Ancestral Resistance (RAM), was detained on Monday after being a fugitive from Justice for almost a year and everything indicates that his extradition to Chile is imminent, where he must complete his 9-year sentence. prison for setting fire to a room.
Around 4 in the morning, members of the Río Negro Police caught the Mapuche activist in the town of El Bolsón. They found it after a call from a neighbor from the La Esperanza neighborhood, which she observed when Jones Huala broke into one of the houses, where she tried to hide inside the barbecue area.
“At the time of his capture he had no documents. He declares who he is, does not hide his identity and was also identified by the police. He was alone, he had very few goods and they were mainly clothes, ”explained the governor of Río Negro, Arabela Carreras, in television statements.
They arrested Facundo Jones Huala
Strictly speaking, the leader of the RAM was dressed in a T-shirt, a jean skirt over black pants and red sneakers.
The provincial president added that the representative of one of the violent factions of the Mapuche community “was looking for a refuge, a place to hide, and he did it on private property.”
“He offered no resistance and was very calm. He was affected by his drunkenness, which was important, ”he completed. The test carried out by the Police indicated that the detainee had 1.31 grams of alcohol for each liter of blood.
Jones Huala was immediately transferred and made available to the Federal Court of San Carlos de Bariloche, for having committed a violation by breaking into a home.
“We are waiting for the federal court to hand it over to a federal force, which is the one that should take care of the transfer,” explained Osvaldo Telleria, Río Negro Police Chief.
Chile rushes extradition
The Chilean authorities rushed the efforts to achieve his immediate extradition. The first step was to request Interpol to impose the red alert to keep him in custody (until Monday his search was carried out under the blue alert, aimed at obtaining more information about his identity, his whereabouts or his criminal activities in relation to a criminal investigation ).
“It is up to start the procedures to request his extradition, procedures that the Public Ministry initiates and the Government will be attentive, because we are interested, of course, that there is no impunity for this, or in any case.
Therefore, we want him to be extradited so that he can serve the corresponding sentence,” said Manuel Monsalve, the undersecretary of the Interior in the Gabriel Boric administration.
The next step to finalize the extradition is for the Chilean ambassador in Buenos Aires, Bárbara Figueroa, to formalize the request before the Foreign Ministry.
This procedure is urgent because if it is not completed within 24 hours of the arrest, the RAM referent will be able to recover his freedom because the crime that he is now accused of does not contemplate preventive detention.
Before the capture of Jones Huala, the security forces of Río Negro implemented a special operation in view of the possibility of eventual violent demonstrations by the extremist groups that represent the Mapuches. “All the units in the area and the special units that may require intervention if necessary have been brought to attention,” Telleria pointed out.
However, Governor Carreras clarified that, until Monday afternoon, there were no incidents. “We have not had any demonstrations. We are not acting against the community, much less against the Mapuche people with whom there is a democratic coexistence, not exempt from conflicts, ”she differentiated.
On this occasion, the RAM leader had been a fugitive since February 15, 2022, when the Supreme Court of Chile revoked a court ruling that had granted him the benefit of probation.
Jones Huala had been serving a sentence since 2018 in a prison in southern Chile, convicted as the perpetrator of the crimes of arson and illegal possession of a firearm, crimes perpetrated in 2013 on the Pisu Pisué farm, commune of Río Bueno, Region of The rivers.
In Argentina, Jones Huala gained prominence in the midst of the violent episodes that the RAM claimed, which were mostly linked to the claim to territory promoted by the Mapuches by “ancestral right.”
In 2015 he was involved in an attempt to take land from Benetton, in the Vuelta del Río area, but he and other members of that movement were acquitted in 2019.
“The RAM belongs to a broader movement that is the Organized Autonomous Mapuche Movement, they are like the ‘special forces’ of the Mapuche struggle. Ideologically I agree with the RAM”, said Jones Huala a few years ago.