36. When analyzing the elements of the offense in the thirteenth considerandum of the criminal judgment that convicted the Lonkos Segundo Aniceto Norín Catrimán and Pascual Huentequeo Pichún Paillalao as perpetrators of the offense of threat of terrorist arson, the criminal court inferred the terrorist intent from stereotypes and prejudices concerning the violence of the Mapuche land claims and from witness statements concerning their “feeling of fear” resulting from acts other than those for which the victims were tried in those proceedings. 53 Here, the domestic court accorded fundamental worth to evidence that did not refer to the acts that were being prosecuted in the criminal proceedings, but to other acts that, moreover, were not attributed to the accused, and no reference is made to whether criminal judgments had been delivered with regard to them. When assessing the terrorist intent, the court substantiated its decision on the testimony of individuals who were referring to other supposed acts, without analyzing whether or not these were true, as well as on newspaper articles, without referring to the sources on which these were based, but rather indicating that the said information “had not been disproved.”54 37. In our opinion, this assessment of the evidence, which gave rise to a prejudice as regards the terrorist intent based on the analysis made by the courts in the judgments, was decisive in the ruling on the terrorist nature of the offenses. Both in this regard, and when ruling on the participation of the two accused as perpetrators of 53 Cf. para. 227 of the Judgment. 54 When analyzing the elements of the definition (objective and subjective) of the offense of threat of terrorist arson, in the judgment delivered on September 27, 2003, by the Angol Oral Criminal Trial Court, in the thirteenth considerandum it was affirmed that: […] the actions that resulted in these wrongful acts reveal that the form, methods and strategies used had the criminal purpose of causing a generalized state of fear in the region. The wrongful acts referred to above are inserted in a process of recovery of lands of the Mapuche people, that has been carried out by acts of violence, without respecting the institutional framework and the laws in force, resorting to previously planned acts of violence, coordinated and prepared by radicalized groups that seek to create a climate of insecurity, instability and fear in different sectors of Regions XIII and IX. These actions can be summarized by excessive demands that violent groups make of owners and landholders, warning them of the different consequences they will face if they do not accede to the groups’ demands. Many of these threats have materialized in the form of assaults, robberies, theft, arson, vandalism and land occupation, which have affected individuals and also the property of various landowners and logging activities in this part of the country. The objective sought is to instill in the population a justified fear of falling victim to similar attacks and, thereby, to oblige the owners to desist from exploiting their properties and, ultimately, force them abandon these properties. The feeling of insecurity and unease that these attacks cause has led to a reduction in the availability of labor and an increase in its cost, an increase in costs and loans both for hiring machinery for exploiting the properties and in the cost of policies to insure the land, installations, and crops. It is increasingly frequent to see workers, machinery, vehicles and operations in the different properties with police protection to safeguard operations, all of which affects rights guaranteed in the Constitution. The above emerges, although not necessarily with the same characteristics, from the corroborative testimony of [twelve deponents], who stated that they had been direct victims or were aware of threats and attacks on individuals or property perpetrated by individuals belonging to the Mapuche ethnic group; witnesses who stated in different ways the feeling of fear that these acts caused. [The foregoing is related to …] information that has not been disproved and that is contained in section C, pages 10 and 11, of the March 10, 2002, edition of the newspaper El Mercurio, on the number of conflicts caused by Mapuche groups by terrorist acts; online publications of La Tercera, La Segunda El Mercurio published on March 26, 1999, December 15, 2001, March 15 and June 15, 2002, respectively, and three tables taken from the web page of the Chile’s Foreign Investment Committee, divided into sectors and by regions, based on the political and administrative division of the country, which allow comparisons to be made between dollars invested in the other regions and in the Ninth, and shows that private investment in the region has decreased. 13