The Government of Chile requested this Monday the immediate extradition of the leader of the Mapuche Ancestral Resistance (RAM), Facundo Jones Hualawho was arrested this morning in El Bolsón during an operation by the Río Negro Police, after spending almost a year on the run from the Chilean Justice.
“Today during the course of the morning Facundo Jones Huala was arrested in Argentina and, obviously, it is up to us to start the procedures to request his extradition, procedures that the Public Ministry begins and the Government will be attentive, because we are interested, of course, that there is no impunity for this, or in any case,” Monsalve said in a contact with the press from Congress.
In this sense, the official of the trans-Andean country affirmed: “We want him to be extradited so that he can serve the corresponding sentence.”
Jones Huala was sentenced by the Chilean justice to nine years in prison for “arson attacks and possession of weapons” and after having been in prison for a while, the Chilean justice granted him probation until, in February of last year, the Supreme Court of the trans-Andean country once again ordered his arrest.
Meanwhile, in Argentina, official sources informed Télam that Jones Huala “is at the disposal of the federal court of San Carlos de Bariloche for having been arrested for a violation.”
In turn, they confirmed that the Chilean authorities, a jurisdiction from which he had been a fugitive since February 11, 2022, requested the “extradite” the leader of the RAM.
“Argentina is going to send a note to the Chilean Embassy sending the judicial document and requesting that it consider transforming the blue circular into red so that preventive detention can be carried out until the extradition request is formalized.” they remarked.
According to official information, the arrest of Jones Huala took place after a several-month investigation carried out by the Rio Negro security force, which found him “hiding in the barbecue area of a neighbor’s house in the La Esperanza neighborhood.”
Now Jones Huala files an Interpol Blue Alert, aimed at obtaining more information about his identity, whereabouts or criminal activities in connection with a criminal investigation.
“The Federal Court of Bariloche maintains communications with the Chilean Court of origin that issued the alert so that within 4 hours it can report whether it will transform it into a red alert to enable international capture and the corresponding extradition request,” it was officially reported. .
Likewise, it was clarified that “notwithstanding this, in the framework of a provincial cause he could be accused of different charges.”
Regarding the arrest, the governor of Río Negro, Arabela Carrerasindicated: “In Río Negro we maintain the firm conviction that we do not tolerate crimes, nor abuse of weapons or attacks against people and property.”
In a dialogue with Radio Seis, the Río Negro president highlighted the work of the provincial security forces as “excellent” and highlighted the importance of combining criteria with the National Government and Justice to achieve this type of result.
“It is to highlight the task that the Ministry of National Security had with the operation in Villa Mascardi and also the judge and the federal prosecutor, maintaining the arrest warrant regarding the people who are committing these crimes; in this way we managed to combine criteria to have these results,” Carreras said.
Along these lines, he explained that The Ministry of Security and Justice of Río Negro, in charge of Betiana Minor, is already processing the entire procedure so that Jones Huala can be extradited to Chile.
“The investigation stage remains in the hands of Justice, both Federal and Provincial,” he said.
The now fugitive has been imprisoned since 2018 in the Chilean prison of Temuco, located 613 kilometers from Santiago and, since then, various protests have followed one another to demand his release.
Last year, the Temuco Court of Appeals accepted an appeal for amparo filed by his defense, after which his conditional release was ordered.
However, the Chilean Supreme Court reversed the ruling on February 15 and again ordered his arrest, which did not take effect because Jones was a fugitive.
