AI CHILE: JOURNALIST UNJUSTLY JAILED

Written by Matt Malinowski
Thursday, 05 June 2008
Amnesty International (AI) said this week that the Chilean government has not clarified circumstances surrounding the arrest of documentary filmmaker Elena Varela. This comes after AI called on human rights organizations around the world to take “urgent” action and protest her arrest.  Varela has been working on a documentary on Chile's Mapuche indigenous community for more than four years. With financing from the government-run National Culture and Arts Council, she was able to travel widely through Mapuche territories in Regions VIII and IX and collect detailed testimony from community members. Varela was suddenly arrested on May 7 near her Region IX residence and charged with “intent to commit a crime.” She was taken to a jail near Rancagua, Region VI, where she remains in police custody. Police confiscated all of her audiovisual equipment, including hours of recorded interviews, cell phones, sound equipment, and cameras. “Amnesty International is especially concerned about the treatment that Varela has received during her interrogation and the fact that her equipment has been confiscated,” AI Chile Executive Director Sergio Laurenti told the Santiago Times. “Her videos could be consequently used to persecute other individuals who have appeared in her documentary.” Laurenti said that AI commonly emits calls to action when an individual has been unjustly threatened or jailed, or if his civil liberties are at risk. He said AI has not issued many such warnings in Chile during recent years, but that this latest appeal has provoked an overwhelming response. “We have received a flood of responses from all over the world, primarily through our website,” Laurenti said. “We still have received no word from the government. But, in our experience, other petitions calling for action are usually made within three or four days of our own.” Varela's arrest follows similar arrests of journalists also filming Mapuche communities. In March, Region IX police detained two French journalists, alleging that they had witnessed a fire set by Mapuches on the country estate “Fundo La Romana”, located a few kilometers from Collipuli. After spending the night in police custody, the two journalists, identified as Christopher Cyril Harrison and Joffrey Paul Rossj, were released (ST, March 25). On May 3, two Italian journalists - Giuseppe Gabriele and Dario Ioseffi - were filming a Mapuche gathering on property owned by Forestal Mininco when they were arrested. “They treated us like terrorists,” the Italians said. “The pushed our faces in the dirt and handcuffed us. They accused us of robbing wood. (ST, May 27)” By Matt Malinowski n