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Key witnesses testified at the 13th hearing of the murder trial of Rafael Nahuel. The young Mapuche man was 22 years old on November 25, 2017, when he was shot in recovered Mapuche territory in Villa Mascardi , Bariloche. Two of them, in turn, were shot by the Albatros group of the Prefecture.

María Nahuel, the victim's aunt, testified before the judges of the General Roca Federal Oral Court: "That day, they informed us that someone had died. I arrived at Route 40 in the second ambulance, and my nephew was already there, dead, on the descent we used to access the community. I was very nervous and couldn't recognize him because of his clothing, but Fausto (Jones Huala) and Lautaro (González Curruhuinca) told me he was my nephew. They kept me detained all day, unable to approach me. It was very painful."

Then his daughter, Johana Colhuan, from the Lafken Winkul Mapu Mapuche community, testified. Johana resisted an attempt to evict her from the land they had settled on in the Villa Mascardi area. On November 25, 2017, she was also shot in the back, wounding her in the shoulder. The next witness was another young Mapuche man, Lautaro González Curruhuinca. He was also very close to Rafael Nahuel that day. Both provided important information as they were direct witnesses and the last people to see Rafita .

“We are not terrorists”

In the first part of today's hearing, there was a clash with the defense attorney for three of the five prefects charged with the shooting in the back of the young man. This was when the attorney requested a Mapuzundungun (Mapuche language) translator because the witness began her statement with a greeting, as is customary, but the court ignored it. Rafita's aunt continued with her account of what she experienced six years ago. "At that moment, I thought of his mother. He was like my son. I feel a lot of sadness to this day. Spiritually, he's not gone; he's present, only his body is gone," she said, answering questions from the plaintiff's attorneys from the APDH and the National Secretariat of Human Rights.

"They kept me in custody all day, they had to sedate me, the prefects were cruel to my nephew. They came and uncovered him, they dragged him, he had a bandage that was slipping off, until I couldn't see him again," said María Nahuel, his aunt.

In his description of the events, he commented: “The trucks and bags of weapons were unloading from the former Mascardi Hotel. The National Parks assassin who filed the complaint says we're usurpers, we're part of a territory, they robbed us more than 100 years ago, and we're returning because we don't have to ask anyone's permission .”

Under the attentive gaze of those present in the courtroom and those participating in the hearing via Zoom, the witness said that her entire family “walked those lands. It's an ancestral right. My last name has a lineage from my ancestors. Before all of you, excuse me, Your Honor, there were us, the Mapuche Nation People, on both sides of the Andes. We always carry the dead; we are not terrorists, we don't have weapons, we just want to be allowed to live as Mapuche .”

Rafael Nahuel's aunt recalled that when Judge Gustavo Villanueva arrived, her daughter Johana was injured. "He let me go up the mountain, I spoke through a speakerphone, there were four of us. Then I came down. Always sad, the prefects and the Federal Police came and uncovered my nephew. And they laughed. I don't know if that's part of their job," she said. 

Before the questions from the parties began, the woman stated: “We are in pain over the murder of Rafael Nahuel. The State always kills our people, part of you. I don’t know if it was Pintos; they shot to kill, that’s why they killed my nephew, wounded my daughter and my lamien (sister) . We fought, shouting and hurling insults. We are not a guerrilla group. I don’t believe in huinca (white) justice, but I hope there is justice. Whoever should go to jail for killing my nephew in the back should go to jail.”

“We were beaten with our children”

María Nahuel said that “ six years have passed without justice . And both here and in Chile, the Mapuche people drag their dead, they beat our children and women, they evict them. We are a pre-existing people, but always attacked by the State. We are here to make my nephew's voice heard . He was a good person with a kind heart, he wanted to settle in the countryside to raise sheep, rabbits, and horses.” She then asked that “they stop lying. Two days before, they evicted us, we were beaten with our children , we are not guerrillas, we want to live freely as you raise your families and have your homes. Rafael Nahuel and Elías Garay are not the first; we drag many dead.”

At that point, attorney Marcelo Rochetti, representing the Albatrosses, interrupted to say that the witness was "making a statement that doesn't correspond to the facts." The presiding judge, Simón Bracco, responded that "the witness is testifying as a relative of a victim and has the rights granted by the Victims' Protection Law." 

Next, plaintiff attorney Rubén Marigo continued his interrogation. “When the judge arrived, he asked for my release. We talked, and when I asked to go up the hill, he said, 'Do you want them to kill her?' I replied no because we don't have weapons and the people there were suffering, so he gave me a flashlight and let me go up,” said María Nahuel. During that same conversation, the judge told her that “he wasn't guilty of the eviction, that the order had been given by the prosecutor (Sylvia Little),” nor of the death of his nephew.

“The State killed him from behind”

When asked by prosecutor Rafael Vehils Ruiz about her arrest, the witness said, "It was full of officers, they had me pinned down, it was the Prefecture, not my people, my hands swelled up." Attorney Rochetti then resumed, intending to show her two photos that supposedly showed Mapuche people with firearms. 

The plaintiff's attorney, Sebastián Feudal, intervened to point out that those images had already been dismissed due to lack of clarity. The defense attorney insisted, and Nahuel replied: "No, I don't recognize anyone."

When asked what happened that day, the Mapuche woman replied: “ The State killed him from behind. All the shell casings on the mountain belong to the State, to the Prefecture .” Before leaving, she questioned: “Those who killed Rafael aren't here today; they're shown on a screen. But we, who are poor, are here; we come by bus. The State should force them to be here and show their faces. They taught me that.”

“He grabbed my hand when he was shot.”

Around 11:00 a.m., one of María's daughters and Rafael Nahuel's cousin, Johana Micaela Colhuan, took the stand to testify. She wore clothing similar to her mother's and a colorful headscarf. 

With a psychologist at her side, Johana stated that on the 23rd they had gathered because there had been an eviction. “We decided to go and bring food and clothing to the lamien who were on the hill. Fausto and I decided to accompany them. That night we went to the Winkul (Mapuche community), walked, and tried to sleep. The next day we continued, and just after noon we found the lamien,” she said. On the 24th, just after noon, they ate and gave their companions shelter. On the 25th, hearing no noise, they thought the security forces had left and decided to go down.

“We traveled 150 meters, I was in the back, it's a small road, a path full of vegetation. I started to hear gunshots, they started running, if they caught us they would kill us all, I told them to leave. Rafa told me to run, I told him to save himself, to keep running. He didn't want to leave me alone. We reached a flat area with Fausto and Lautaro. Fausto was throwing some rocks, at that moment they shot my cousin, he fell to the ground, and they shot me in the arm,” the witness said, and burst into tears.

Colhuan described the scene after Nahuel was fatally shot. “My cousin fell. We saw that a bullet had entered one of his buttocks. We lifted his shirt, and the bullet was right next to his rib; he was swollen. He said he couldn't see, that he was having trouble breathing, that he was thirsty. I told him, ' stay calm .' Someone made a stretcher out of wood, but he wanted to stay there. He got off two or three times. He didn't want us to bring him down the hill. I held his hand to calm him down. I told him help would arrive with a doctor.”

Rafael Nahuel didn't make it back to Route 40 alive. He died while being taken off the bus. Mapuche man Gonzalo Coña was also injured; he was with the group of nine people. "It all happened in just a few minutes," Johana explained. 

In response to questions from the prosecution and defense, Colhuan explained that "to avoid being so visible, we went up to an area with more trees because when we were going down to Rafa, we saw all the special forces, in case they fired again." He also said that a lamien gave him antiseptic plants to prevent his wound from becoming infected. "I still have the scar," he said, touching his left shoulder.

Despite the defense's opposition, Colhuan recounted what Rafa was like: "He lived in his little wooden house, he ran workshops, but it's hard to find work, he did blacksmithing. He was my cousin; I would visit him, we would chat, listen to music. In the winter, with the snow, sometimes he didn't have any firewood, so we would share mate." 

The witness added that her cousin “had a difficult life and wanted to get ahead, to live a better, healthier life in the countryside.” Between sobs, Colhuan continued: “We were almost the same age. He knew we were Mapuche, we liked participating in ceremonies; he felt good that way. He wanted peace, to raise animals, and to escape the suffering of the cities, where it's hard to survive. Everyone loved him; he was always a wonderful person. We were together until the day he was killed. He made jokes, made me laugh, and felt good. He held my hand when he was shot. I loved him very much. I miss him.”

Attorney Rochetti wanted to know if Colhuan had ever belonged to a security or armed force. "I worked in the Army, I did two months of training, and then as a maid I cleaned the huts at the barracks," she replied.

“I didn’t want to fall into detention, but I couldn’t walk.”

After a recess, Lautaro González Curruhuinca said, " I'm here so the parents can find out how Rafita died." The young man said he had come to the community on November 22 to see the machi (Mapuche medicine woman) for a kidney problem.

“At dawn on the 23rd, there was an eviction. We couldn't do anything because there were so many troops and it was very dark. We had to run toward the mountain; there were only a few peñi (friends). There were more women and children than men. We were in the forest. The next day, the 24th, we found the rest of the peñi who had come to bring us food,” he recounted. Just as Colhuan had explained, on the 25th, just after noon, they decided to go down to see what was happening below. “We heard gunshots, we started running uphill, and at that moment, we could hear gunshots all the time. Fausto and I reached a plain, and we started defending ourselves with rocks. There were a lot of gunshots, and they were coming up.”

Curruhuinca saw that his sister and Coña were wounded, and Rafael Nahuel fell instantly. “We shouted that someone was down, and the officers retreated. We looked at the peñi , who couldn’t speak; he was writhing in pain. We saw the blood, and under his shirt, he had a ball under his armpit. We made a makeshift stretcher with some planks. Peñi Rafael was falling. He couldn’t control his movements and said we should leave him there. He didn’t want to fall, but he couldn’t walk. When I took his hand, it was cold. I tied him to the stretcher with a sash.”

Together with Fausto Jones Huala, whose testimony will be heard at the next hearing, they began to unload the stretcher. "Down on the road, he was already dead. The Prefectura officers, of which there were many, surrounded us. We told them we were bringing Rafita, dead, and not to shoot." As soon as they left the body on the road, they were sealed off and taken to the front of the former hotel (Mascardi). 

“We were there for an hour until the judge's secretary arrived. The duct tape was cutting my hands, and I asked for them to take it off. They handcuffed us. They threw us face down in the grass until they sat us in a Traffic car facing the lake, with Rafita next to us, covered with a vest. They came, looked at his face, and left him covered. They did this several times. Then they took us to a PSA van. The Río Negro police took samples from us and took us to the airport.” The whole thing lasted about five hours, he estimated.

"When we were in the PSA van, they took samples from our hands, swabbed us, and told us it was to obtain traces of gunpowder. I never came into contact with any firearm," the witness said. González Curruhuinca added that a couple of members of the Prefecture argued with each other, and at the time of his arrest, they shook him.

Justice for Rafael Nahuel

the Argentine Naval Prefecture's elite Albatross group in the trial that began a month ago in the Federal Oral Court (TOF) of General Roca : Sergio Guillermo Cavia, Juan Obregón, Sergio García, Carlos Sosa, and Francisco Javier Pintos. This week, the two young Mapuche men who carried Nahuel's body down the mountain to Route 40 in search of medical help, Fausto Jones Huala and Lautaro González Curruhuinca, will testify as witnesses. Both were with the victim when he was shot. The trial, which is taking place in the Rio Negro city of General Roca (Fiske Menuco, according to the Mapuche denomination), is structured into two weekly hearings, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and is only halfway through.

Outside the Fiske Menuco Courthouse (General Roca), organizations in solidarity with the indigenous communities had arrived early to hold a rally. A communal pot was held to accompany the statements of these crucial Mapuche witnesses.