Six Mapuches were sentenced to suspended prison terms for occupying properties in Villa Mascardi.

The Federal Oral Court of General Roca imposed suspended sentences on Mapuche criminals from the Lafken Winkul Mapu community, who usurped public land and private properties in Villa Mascardi. They were found responsible for the crimes of usurpation with dispossession.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office and the plaintiffs, both from National Parks and private individuals, had requested that actual prison sentences be imposed on the defendants.

Meanwhile, Judge Alejandro Silva rejected the request made by the national agency to remove the “rewe,” a wooden sculpture that the Mapuches placed during the occupation. The Court imposed sentences ranging from 1 year (1 año) to 2 years and six months (2 años y seis meses) of suspended imprisonment.

Among those convicted is Matías Santana, a member of the Lafken Winkul Mapu community and known as the “binocular Mapuche” for the false testimony he gave during the Santiago Maldonado case, in which he claimed to have seen with his binoculars how the National Gendarmerie allegedly took him away.

The judge ordered the immediate release of Santana, who was under house arrest, and unified his sentences for other previous crimes, imposing a three-year (tres años) suspended prison sentence on him.

The other members of the group are Luciana Jaramillo and Romina Rosas, both sentenced to 2 years and 4 months (2 años y 4 meses) of suspended imprisonment; the machi Betiana Colhuan, to 2 years and two months (2 años y dos meses) also suspended; and Celeste Ardaiz Güenumil, who received a sentence of one year (un año) of suspended imprisonment.

In the verdict read on Monday at noon, the judge established a series of behavioral guidelines that they must comply with during the same period as the sentence.

The Mapuche community

In November 2017, the Mapuche community Lafken Winkul Mapu illegally entered two plots of land owned by National Parks, from where they extended their occupation to other state and private lands, all located 22 miles (35 kilómetros) from Bariloche, in Villa Mascardi.

Although during the trial they tried to claim their innocence, there are numerous documents in which they acknowledge having advanced onto private properties, relying on a weak argument of "ancestral preexistence" over those lands.

During their stay at the site, which lasted until October 2022, they carried out various acts of vandalism against properties as well as against tourists and drivers.