One day in November of last year, Julia Chuñil summoned her dog, Cholito, and ventured into the forest around her home to look for missing farm animals. The cattle came back but Julia, who was 72 at the time, and her dog did not.
More than 100 people participated with her relatives in a hunt lasting multiple weeks in the steep, wet and thickly vegetated landscape of the nation of Chile’s ancient Valdivian forest. A month later, they even kept an eye on vultures for any disturbing signs. But they found no trace of Chuñil.
Julia Chuñil is among 146 land and environmental defenders who were murdered or disappeared around the world in the previous year, according to a report by the campaign group Global Witness. About a third of those, similar to Chuñil, were from native groups – a heavy toll for peoples who collectively constitute only six percent of the global population.
The activist, a leader of the Mapuche Indigenous community in Chile, was residing in contested land. A decade earlier she had settled in Reserva Cora, a 900-hectare section of the age-old Valdivian ecosystem 500 miles below Santiago, which her community claimed as an ancestral homeland.
For many years she advocating to secure land rights for the location for her community. However, the site’s nominal owner, the descendant of colonizers, refused to relinquish ownership. He wanted the site for logging – Chile is a significant exporter of wood to the United States – and he sought to remove the activist. Prior to her disappearance, Chuñil told supporters: “If anything happens to me, it will be clear who is responsible.”
Global Documentation on Attacks Against Defenders
The organization began recording cases of killings and disappearances of land and environmental defenders in 2012. From that point, it has collated a total of two thousand two hundred fifty-three instances. Over the last ten years, the most dangerous region has been Central and South America. Last year it accounted for 82% of reported incidents, including 45 Indigenous people.
“Land conflict is at the heart of violence against defenders, and Indigenous peoples are paying the highest price,” stated an expert at Global Witness. “Communities with historical ties to territory often form the frontline of resistance when their territories are endangered from resource extraction and invasion. But despite their critical function, they are often denied recognition and legal redress, and subjected to serious risk for defending their legitimate territories.”
Country-Specific Data and Unrecorded Cases
Chuñil’s was the only case documented in her nation during that period, even though it fitted a trend of the singling out of Mapuche activists in the country. The nation of Colombia recorded forty-eight cases, making it the most lethal nation in total for ecological activists, then came the country of Guatemala with twenty cases, the deadliest country per capita. The country of Mexico had nineteen cases, putting it in third place overall.
Under-reporting remains an issue, especially in the Asian continent and Africa, which registered sixteen and nine cases respectively, Global Witness noted. Overall, the previous year the lowest number of cases of killings and disappearances of land activists were documented in ten years.
The lead researcher, who led the research for the organization, commented: “I would also like to be able to tell you that this implies a reduction of hostilities and an improvement in the conditions for defenders, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Human rights defenders face situations of violence that go far beyond homicide. What violence often does is transform, become more sophisticated, change its face.”
Continuing Fight for Accountability
Julia’s relatives have persisted in seeking legal resolution but their advocacy has made them a target of threats and intimidation, as well. During April, a pair of creatures from her property that they had intended to sell to fund court expenses were found killed, one shot and another by toxins. “It is, above all, a deliberate attempt to block us from fighting this legal matter,” her son a family member informed Global Witness.
The group’s report calls on governments to act to halt the lack of punishment of the killers of environmental defenders by tackling the absence of legal entitlements activists have over property, strengthening ineffective domestic judiciary frameworks, and guaranteeing endangered advocates are given adequate government security.
“All we are asking for is a full, fair probe to be conducted,” the son said of his mother’s situation. “It’s been almost a year since she disappeared and we’re still in the dark about the events. Our demand is the responsible parties to be discovered and prosecuted.”
