Chilean activist's fast passes 100 days

An indigenous-rights activist jailed for setting fire to a farm once owned by Mapuche Indians passed the 100-day mark of a prison hunger strike by urging colleagues to "continue to fight" for the recovery of their lands.

"Let's keep advancing, more united than ever to defend our rights to land and freedom," Patricia Troncoso said in a letter dated Jan. 18, the 100th day of her fast, and released on Monday. Troncoso was taken by prison officials to a southern hospital eight days ago as her health deteriorated.

Troncoso and four Mapuche Indians, members of a movement to recover land seized from their native ancestors, were in 2005 sentenced to 10 years in prison for setting a farm in southern Chile on fire.

They began a hunger strike to protest prison conditions and lobby for the status of "political prisoner" in October, but only Troncoso, 37, has continued it — regularly drinking sugar water, according to prison officials.

On Monday, Amnesty International and Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an Argentine human rights group, asked Chilean President Michelle Bachelet to intercede in what Amnesty called "an unjust trial and sentence."

Bachelet has in the past declined to intervene, noting that a court, not the government, has jurisdiction over Troncoso's case.