Prisoners of the 2019–2021 Chilean protests

Deputy Tomás Hirsch has stated that Chile "is breaching international human rights treaties by having excessively long preventive detentions". Deputy Maite Orsini has exemplified this with two young men who spent 431 and 457 days in preventive detention only to be condemned for minor offences that did not result in prison sentences. In another case a man spent 14 months in preventive prison, purportedly for carrying a stone and a molotov cocktail, before charges were dropped. Matías Fuentes a 22-year old former engineering student was in preventive for 13 months before charges were dropped. United Nations has criticized Chile for its excessive use of preventive detention and the discrepancies that exists regarding the number of people in preventive detention associated to the 2019-2020 protests. In December 2020 Deputy Claudia Mix numbered the Prisoners of the Revolt at "more than 2500 unfinished processes and over 600 in jail". Araya has cautioned against a general pardon since it would also benefit those who used a "just cause" to carry out looting and arson. Citing the European Parliament's resolution 1900 (The definition of political prisoner, 2012) University of Chile law professor Claudio Nash Rojas states however that there is evidence there are political prisoners and that this is independent of the real or presumed crimes and offences committed by the prisoners. Chilean court's indiscriminate use of the highest level of precautionary measure () –that is preventive prison– to members of Primera Línea is to be understood according to Claudio Nash Rojas as a political measure. ==Release attempts==

The demand for the release of the Prisoners of the Revolt is supported by left-wing groups such as the Broad Front, the Communist Party of Chile and The List of the People. Elisa Loncón has declared her aim to make a petition for the release of Prisoners of the Revolt. María Rivera has defended detainees in court and has been a driving force behind the release attempts as a member of the Constitutional Convention. Shortly after being elected President and Vice-President of the Constitutional Convention, Elisa Loncón and Jaime Bassa declared their aim to discuss a formal petition for the release of the prisoners. Loncón also mentioned her aim to provide amnesty to indigenous "political prisoners" of the Mapuche conflict. In one of its first agreements after being formed, the Constitutional Convention published a statement on 7 July 2021 for the release of the "political prisoners" of the protests and the Mapuche conflict, calling the Congress to approve the proposed law for pardon and amnesty. The statement was supported by 105 out of 155 members, being rejected mainly by the right-wing members from Chile Vamos. ==Government response==

The Government of Chile has rejected the notion that political prisoners would exist in Chile. In his traditional May 21 speech of 2021 President Sebastián Piñera echoed Vivanco's view by refuting the existence of political prisoners in Chile. Writing in Rebelion.org pundit Igor Mora notes in relation to this that no government in the world has ever recognised the existence of political prisoners in its jurisdiction. Larraín has also recognised the situations of distress caused by slow processes, claiming part of the reason is that many investigated crimes occurred in situations that are not clear-cut and take time to clarify. Larraín has as of November 2020 declined to interfere with the Judiciary of Chile in this matter. ==References==