After the Supreme Court ruling that rejected the appeal filed by Celestino Córdova, the machi announced – through his spokesmen – that he will give the Government 24 hours to respond to the petition of the Mapuche ethnic prisoners before starting a dry hunger strike.
It should be noted that with the amparo, Córdova – who is convicted of the crime of the Luchsinger Mackay couple – intended to commute the prison sentence to house arrest – appealing to ILO Convention 169 on indigenous peoples – in order to return to his rewe of Father Las Casas.
Córdova, who has been on a hunger strike for 102 days and admitted to the Nueva Imperial Hospital Intercultura – La Araucanía Region – announced on Tuesday that if the ruling of the country’s highest court is adverse to his interests, he would initiate a dry strike.
And this afternoon, after receiving a visit from his representatives, he sent a kind of ultimatum to the Government.
After visiting the machi, and on the outskirts of the hospital, Cristina Romo read a brief statement, where she stated that “in an extremely generous gesture and as the spiritual authority of our Mapuche people, the machi Celestino Córdova has decided, starting at 12 tonight, give the Chilean Government 24 hours to solve the entire petition of the Mapuche political prisoners not to start a dry strike yet.
Throughout the day there have been demonstrations of support from Mapuche community members to the machi in the hospital. Córdova also received a visit from the director of the National Institute of Human Rights, Sergio Micco, who after the meeting called on all parties to continue dialogue and advocated incorporating a new treatment of indigenous peoples in the future constituent discussion.
And in Concepción, the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, called on Córdova not to take the extreme measure of a dry hunger strike: “From here, personally, I say to Celestino Córdova: machi, colleague, doctor, for Please, I beg you to medicate this situation and not to harm your health, not to harm your life, to give an example to your patients (…) I beg you to stop the hunger strike ”, he stated.
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