The region of Araucanía has been in the headlines...because of a series of incendiary attacks against trucks and land belonging to forestry companies and agribusiness interests...Simultaneously...several human rights groups...complain[ed] about the "silence" of the government...with respect to the hunger strike that has brought activist Patricia Troncoso to the verge of death...The 37-year-old activist is serving a 10-year sentence on charges of terrorist arson. In 2001, the courts found her and several Mapuche activists responsible for a fire that burned 100 hectares of pine plantations belonging to the Mininco forestry company...Local and international human rights groups consider the sentences far out of proportion to the activists’ actions, and argue that protests by Mapuche people for the protection of their traditional lands and in defence of the environment are not acts of terrorism.