Chilean Court Sentences Resistencia Mapuche Lafkenche Members to Prison

Prison Terms Exceeding Eight Decades for RML Leadership

The heaviest penalties fell on the group’s alleged ringleaders. Federico Astete Catrileo, identified by prosecutors as the leadership within the Resistencia Mapuche Lafkenche and detained during an April 2025 operation in Pocuno, Cañete, received a sentence exceeding 80 years in prison. Four other core members received similar multi-decade prison terms.

According to prosecutors from the Biobío Regional Prosecutor’s Office, the 18 convicted individuals faced tiered sentencing based on their adult status, prior criminal records, and degree of participation. Five adult defendants received sentences exceeding 80 years, another five were ordered to serve 65 years, and a third group of five adults received 35-year terms. The remaining defendants, who were minors at the time of the 2022 attack, received specialized juvenile penalties: two were sentenced to closed institutional internment and one to supervised probation.

Assistant Regional Prosecutor Michelangelo Bianchi explained that among the adult offenders, criminal history played a decisive role in structuring the exact prison lengths. Certain defendants received slightly higher individual totals because they lacked an unblemished prior record and did not qualify for that status, unlike the others who received approximately 64 years (as detailed by ADN Radio).

Details of the 2022 Attack on the Grollmus Family Property in Contulmo

The sentencing closes a judicial cycle examining the events of August 29, 2022, when an armed group numbering close to twenty individuals stormed the private property in Contulmo. Prosecutors established during the trial that the attackers surrounded the family residence, opened direct gunfire on the building, and torched the historical Grollmus mill, the family museum, an adjacent woodshed, and two vehicles.

The violence left profound physical consequences for the property’s occupants. Carlos Grollmus Thiele, 79 years old at the time of the attack, suffered point-blank gunfire that required the amputation of one of his legs. Other family members, including Helmuth Grollmus (85) and Christian Grollmus (55), also sustained gunshot wounds during the raid.

Defense Intentions to File Nullification Appeals in Cañete

Despite the delivery of the judicial verdict, the legal battle over the convictions has not ended. Following the reading of the sentence, public defender Katherine Valdés, who represents 14 of the 19 originally accused individuals, formally requested the substitution of pretrial detention and provisional internment measures for her clients.

Valdés told the court that beginning today there is a period during which the defense can challenge the said resolution in accordance with the appeal for nullification that they are going to evaluate, warning that the defense strategy could eventually lead to a new trial or a replacement sentence. The Cañete tribunal rejected the defense request to lift custody measures while those appeals are weighed.

Official Reactions and Security Measures Across the Biobío Region

Regional authorities welcomed the prison totals, framing the outcome as a major milestone against rural violence. Security Minister Martín Arrau issued a public statement via social media shortly after the sentencing concluded.

He stated that they attacked to sow terror, and that today their sentences total more than a thousand years in prison.

Martín Arrau, Security Minister, via La Tercera

Arrau further characterized the militant cell’s actions as an attack against a family, against an entire community, and against the right of Chileans to live without fear (as reported by La Tercera). With security concerns remaining high surrounding the tribunal’s decision, provincial delegations deployed reinforced police details alongside military units operating under the ongoing state of exception across Cañete, Tirúa, and Contulmo, according to reporting by El Mostrador.