Anti-Prison Internationalism: Toni Chavero Begins Hunger Strike in Solidarity with Marcelo Villarroel

Toni Chavero, a prisoner in Extremera prison, Madrid, has begun a hunger strike as an act of solidarity with the autonomous subversive prisoner Marcelo Villarroel, the only prisoner in $hile convicted under military justice, the same one that Boric’s government has made seem obsolete and non-existent, hiding the fact that it still maintains under that regime a comrade who fought against the dictatorship and the repressive apparatuses of the false transition.

Below we share text sent to La Zarzamora from Madrid, territory occupied by the Spanish state.

“With some delay, we received a letter from the extermination center of Estremera – Madrid VII, from our comrade Toni Chavero. He informs us that yesterday, October 1, he began a hunger strike in solidarity with Marcelo Villarroel, for his immediate release. It is the second hunger strike that he has initiated, demanding the freedom of Marcelo, who completed his sentence in December last year and is still being held hostage in the Gonzalina prison-company, in Rancagua, a territory dominated by the Chilean state. He had started fasting last September. Since the 15th of last month and the 1st and 15th of each month, before starting this hunger strike, for the 14 points of the protest table “in case someone joins. I will continue even if it is alone.”

As in the previous hunger strike, Toni shouts again for “… THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF MARCELO VILLARROEL SEPÚLVEDA, KIDNAPPED BY THE CHILEAN STATE, WHOSE CURRENT “PROGRESSIVE” GOVERNMENT IN COLLABORATION WITH THE JAILERS OF CHILE, APPLIES TO HIM THE LAWS ALREADY REPEALED BY THE MILITARY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF THE DICTATOR PINOCHET IN CONJUNCTION WITH LAW 321 PROPOSED BY THE SAME JAILERS WHO SERVED THE DICTATOR, LEGISLATED AND HAPPILY APPLIED BY THIS SELF-STYLED LEFT-WING GOVERNMENT…” addressing again to his ambassador in Spain to ask for “a response from his embassy in Madrid to my complaint to the Chilean state, for allowing the forced and illegal confinement that keeps my comrade kidnapped.

That is why I will continue to demand his immediate release. I will fast in solidarity with my comrade Marcelo for an indefinite period of time, on the same terms as my previous demands of last year. I want his immediate release, as well as the immediate disappearance of the dictator Pinochet’s use of military laws in the present and in the future. It is enough to take over the tools of the dictator’s horror of the past to camouflage them in a false Democratic government. The Chilean embassy must listen to me, as part of the Chilean state. Marcelo Villarroel’s current situation must cease immediately, so that he can resume his life from the position in which you want to leave him.”

He has also sent letters to the Congress of Thieves and to the Defensor de Nadie (Defensor del Pueblo) with the same points of demand.

He sends a greeting to the comrades who continue to remember him and ends his letter like this:

FOR THE ANNULMENT OF THE CONVICTIONS OF THE MILITARY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF THE GENOCIDAL MURDERER PINOCHET TO OUR COMRADE MARCELO VILLARROEL!

AS LONG AS THERE IS MISERY THERE WILL BE REBELLION!

MARCELO TO THE STREET NOW!

Source: La Zarzamora