The alarms went off this Thursday in the Government after the formalization hearing of the leader of the Arauco Malleco Coordinator (CAM), Héctor Llaitul. And not because of the call from the adviser to the Minister of Social Development, Jeanette Vega -which ultimately ended with her leaving the cabinet- but because of the presence of Ignacio Sapiaín Martínez, a plaintiff attorney who represented the Ministry of the Interior during the hearing of formalization, carried out in the Court of Temuco.
Said alarm was ignited by the “empathic” statements made by Sapiaín during the hearing: “Mr. Llaitul is a leader, much more than a warrior. We can empathize in some aspects with his cause, referring to the territorial claim; the Government has been working in that area, by peaceful means, recovering land and handing it over to the Mapuche people, a people he claims to protect, but as a good leader, he has lost his way, he has not realized the damage he is causing to his own people”.
This “empathy” was the trigger for the criticism received by the Government, since the The bookcase He later assured that it is the same jurist who defends the victims in the case corresponding to the “Hurricane case”, among which is precisely Llaitul, which originated an artificial controversy that forced a deployment of the Interior to deny that they represent Llaitul in said case. In the specific case, Sapian is part of the team of lawyers of the Ministry of the Interior that represents the victims of the staging of the Hurricane operation, and in whose case, moreover, he is not even a party as plaintiffs for lack of coordination in the deadlines, for which his only participation in the litigation in its capacity of representing the victims as a whole, and not of a personal defense, as it was sought to install.
Sapiaín is known in the Biobío region not only for his career as a lawyer, but also because he was linked to the world of politics. This, because the 48-year-old lawyer, a specialist in Civil Law, was the first candidate for councilor in the 2016 elections for the “Pueblo Unidos” pact (which brought together the leftist movements “Popular Front” and “Equality Party”), although he did not achieve the quota when he finished second.
This electoral failure did not intimidate him and he returned to the fray in 2021, as a candidate for mayor of San Pedro de la Paz, as an independent outside of the pact. On this occasion, he finished sixth with 7.07% of the preferences.
It is in this campaign that he achieved national notoriety, but not for good reasons, since he was accused of assault by a member of the command of the then candidate and now mayor of the commune, Javier Guíñez, because he was recorded -along with other three people – collecting Guíñez’s flags and accusing him of destroying the propaganda, so that later the lawyer slapped the camera.
Llaitul’s lawyer
Clarified the confusion that the Government had to go out to deny, it is time to clarify who is then the lawyer who represents Llaitul. This is Rodrigo Román, who has had an active role in causes associated with the social outbreak and in the defense of Mapuche community members. In fact, he is the one who defended Llaitul in the “Huracán” case, assuring at that time that it was the “scrazziest montage since the return to democracy.”
Román is a member of the Popular Defender’s Office, who has participated in various causes linked to the social outbreak and defense of the so-called “political prisoners of the revolt.” In fact, on July 1, in a statement by the People’s Ombudsman, where Román is seen, they criticize that “more than 100 days of the transformative government that campaigned promised the release of political prisoners had passed, to the point of celebrating a campaign act in the CDP Santiago 1”.
In addition, on May 18, and being commissioned by Llaitul, the lawyer asked the Comptroller’s Office to audit the Ministry of the Interior, for an alleged attempt to tarnish his name. “A failed propaganda activity would have been carried out, which consisted of changing or modifying the biography of Peñi Héctor Llaitul, on this platform known as Wikipedia,” Román said in a video.
The Investigative Police (PDI) and the Prosecutor’s Office have also been critical of Román. For example, the year 2020 accused a “assembly concocted and armed by the PDI” after the freedom granted by the 7th Oral Criminal Court of Santiago to BESM and Daniel Morales, who spent a year in prison after being accused of setting fire to the “Pedreros” Metro station during the social outbreak. Román suffered a setback in 2021, because the Supreme Court rejected an appeal for annulment and ratified the sentence of five years of provisional internment in a closed and semi-closed regime for BESM
In addition to Llaitul, he has represented the family of Francisco Martínez in the “Panguipulli” case -he filed a complaint for aggravated homicide that was rejected, the case closed and the accused police officer dismissed for legitimate defense-; apart from those accused in the Luchsinger Mackay case; the werkén Daniel Melinao, accused of the death of police officer Hugo Albornoz in 2013; and Mónica Caballero in the “Bombas” case.
Román also ventured into the political world, since he tried to be a candidate for deputy in 2013 for district 21 (Providencia and Ñuñoa), an option that was then supported by the Equality Party.
