Mauricio is one of the most significant oppositors to the chilean military dictatorship first and, later, to the "democratic" transition guided by the same dictator Pinochet (until his death).

Case Background:

In 1976, during the dictatorship, Mauricio was a Communist Party militant, while in 1983 he was one of the founders of the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), an organization borned as the military organization of the Communist Party that later developed its own authonomy to fight and defeat the dictatorship on the military plan.

Mauricio was condemned many times in Chile as intellectual and material author of many actions developed by his own organization and he was arrested in 1993. Freed from prison in 1996 thanks to an operation of his organization, he was arrested again in 2002 in Brasil for the kidnapping of a company manager and condemned to 30 years of prison.

Life in Prison:

For almost 14 years, Mauricio has been suffering an inhuman prison regime that violates all the "*Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners*", adopted by the First Congress of the *United Nations* about the *Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders*:

  * A cell 3x2 meters, bathroom included.
  * Two hours a day in a tightened courtyard.
  * Visits just of his brothers and systers, for 3 hours a month.
  * No access to newspapers, TV, radios, etc.
  * Just a book a week.
  * No contact with other prisoners.

The aim is:
-to make known his situation,
-denounce the Human Rights violation promoted by the Brasilian Government,
-speed up the Brasilian Authorities to an humanitarian act by the repatriation of Mauricio Hernández Norambuena to Chile (the Chilean Government has
already presented an extradition request to the Brasilian Authorities).

The Brasilian Government in 2002 destroyed the lager of the Carandiru (2nd of October in 1992, 111 prisoners killed by its security forces)
and replaced it by many modern prisons where the physical torture is replaced by the psychological torture. *Stop the Human Rights violations
of the Brasilian Government now!!!*