Alleged role of senior officials from the Chilean government in violent attacks by armed civilians to Mapuche indigenous protesters in Chile

Foreign and Commonwealth Office did not have the information requested.

Ref.: Alleged role of senior officials from the Chilean government in violent attacks by armed civilians to Mapuche indigenous protesters

Under the FOI2000 Act, and observing all the relevant international conventions, treaties and agreements, I would like to request the following information.

1) It has been widely reported by Chilean and international media an event in early August where armed civilians shouting racist slurs violently attacked and evicted Mapuche indigenous groups who were peacefully occupying council buildings in the twon of Curacautin, and other localities, resulting several indigenous people with severe injuries (see R1, R2, R3 below for reference). Please confirm if the FCO holds any records about the occurrence of this incident. If so, please provide all these records.

(R1) Radio Villa Francia (video of injured Mapuche attacked, phone recording) (Chilean media, in Spanish) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDYElOIJlyg/

(R2) Scoop World (New Zealand media) https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2008/S...

(R3) La Tercera (Chilean media, in Spanish) https://www.latercera.com/politica/notic...

2) It has been reported that senior officials from the Chilean government had a meeting with the alleged organisers of this attack before this violent incident. Please confirm if the FCO holds records of this meeting. If so, please provide these records.

(R4) El Heraldo (Chilean media, in Spanish) http://www.diarioelheraldo.cl/noticia/la...

(R5) Cronica Digital (Chilean media) https://www.cronicadigital.cl/2020/08/03...

(R6) ADN Radio (Chilean media, in Spanish) https://www.adnradio.cl/nacional/2020/08...

Please reply to this request via email and provide the information in the electronic format, preferably PDF, or spreadsheets for large datasets.

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request. If part of the records includes information which cannot be shared, as mentioned in section 46, please consider providing redacted documents.

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I will be very happy to clarify what I am asking for and discuss the request.

Yours faithfully,

Diego Rates
PhD Student, Vice-President Chilean Society, University of Edinburgh

Information Rights (Sensitive),

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Central FOI Unit,

Dear Mr Rates

Thank you for your FOI request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We received your request on 2nd September. It has been assigned a unique
reference number (above). We aim to respond by Wednesday, 30th September.

Please note, however, that reprioritisation of resources due to the
COVID-19 crisis, and measures we are required to take to prevent the
spread of the virus, continue to have an impact on our ability to respond
to all requests within the statutory deadline.

We have significantly reduced on-site working which will mean delays to
responses which require access to paper records.

We are endeavouring to process requests as quickly as possible, and
appreciate your patience at this time.

Yours sincerely,

Information Rights Unit

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Information Rights Unit,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Rates,

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request
FOI2020/17837, received 2nd September. Please find our response attached.

Yours sincerely,

Information Rights Unit

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office