Weekly Report - 27 February 2014 (WR-14-08)

Last week a local court found an activist of the indigenous Mapuche guilty of the murder of a retired couple in January 2013, in the southern Araucanía region, where the Mapuche lays claim to ancestral lands. The attack had sparked violent unrest [WR-13- 01]. While stopping short of finding the attack a terrorist act - as requested by the government of President Sebastián Piñera - the court ruling has focused attention back onto the Mapuche issue and renewed calls from civil society groups, like Centro de Investigación y Defensa Sur, for President-elect Michelle Bachelet, who takes office on 11 March, to revoke the anti-terrorism legislation altogether.