Pressure escalates in the Quilleco Case: Mapuche community members on indefinite hunger strike to demand the annulment of the trial, due process, and urgent improvements at the Temuco Correctional Center.
The Quilleco Case adds a new chapter of pressure. According to a document received by this newsroom, Mapuche political prisoners have begun an indefinite hunger strike and are targeting the January sentence, accusing the court of violating due process.
In the document, the community members communicate “the current state” of their situation and emphasize that the measure is not symbolic: they demand the annulment of the guilty verdict, call for respect for due process, and, furthermore, raise once again the issue of the prison conditions in the Mapuche community member module at the Temuco Penitentiary Center (CCP).
Indefinite Hunger Strike in the Quilleco Case: The Demands of the Mapuche Political Prisoners
The statement reads:
“Through this statement, we wish to communicate the current situation of ourselves, the Mapuche political prisoners in the Quilleco case, who today, February 16, 2026, began an indefinite hunger strike demanding the following:
1. The annulment of the guilty verdict in which we were sentenced on January 20, 2026, in the Los Ángeles Criminal Court, to 15 and 17 years in prison.
2. Respect for due process and an end to political convictions.
3. Improvements in prison conditions within and for the Mapuche community members module at the Temuco Correctional Center.”
The text frames the hunger strike as a response to a conviction that, they assert, was handed down in an environment unfavorable to the defense and with a pattern of criminalization that is not new to Mapuche and social organizations that have followed the case.
Resumen Latinoamericano, February 18, 2026
SOURCE: El Ciudadano