On 18th August 2020, Chilean Indigenous leader Celestino Cordova, who spent more than 100 days on hunger strike over his detention during the coronavirus pandemic, agreed to end it after negotiations with the government. Cordova began a hunger strike in January after officials denied his request to complete a religious ceremony outside of the prison. He was imprisoned for 18 years in 2014 for his alleged participation in a fatal arson attack. His hunger strike sparked protests and brought attention from international human rights groups, including the UN. 

In early August, the UN sent a fact-finding team to Chile following Cordova’s hunger strike and reported that it was "alarmed" at recent expressions of hatred and racial discrimination that were perpetrated by Chilean civilians against the Mapuche.  During the mission, the Office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) visited both the hospital in Chile’s Araucanian region, where Cordova was being treated, and prisons where more than 20 other Mapuche were also on hunger strike. Prisoners detailed allegations of forced evictions from council property, excessive or unnecessary use of force by the authorities, and racial discrimination. 

THE MAPUCHE

The Mapuche are the largest Indigenous group in Chile, representing 84% of the national Indigenous population. Before the colonial era, Mapuche territory extended across present day Chile and Argentina, and despite a treaty (signed by the Spanish colonists) recognising an independent Mapuche state in southern Chile, the area was militarily annexed by the post-Chilean state in 1883. 

From this point, the border with Argentina formed an artificial boundary between the two halves of the Mapuche nation. Following the military campaigns, Mapuche people were removed to reservations, losing the majority of their ancestral lands.

CONTINUED TENSION BETWEEN THE MAPUCHE AND THE CHILEAN GOVERNMENT

In the southern region of Araucania in particular, the Mapuche has for decades been fighting for its ancestral land against landowners and the wood pulp industry. They accuse the state of failing to uphold their historical rights. According to Minority Rights, a global NGO, the Mapuche are one of the poorest, least educated, and most malnourished populations in Chile.

Chile is the only country in Latin America that does not recognise its indigenous people in its constitution, and, with the support of international human rights groups, Mapuche organisations in Chile “continue to demand constitutional recognition for Indigenous peoples”, causing the Mapuche to face challenges over territorial rights. 

OVERLY BROAD AND DRACONIAN CHILEAN LAWS 

Chilean courts continue to prosecute Mapuche land-rights activists under the country’s counter-terrorism law for violence and destruction of property during protests. The law has faced criticism for its overly broad definition of terrorism and insufficient due process guarantees. Among those charged under the controversial legislation was Mapuche community leader and Nobel Prize winner Alberto Curamil. In 2014, Curamil was imprisoned on false terrorism charges spending five years in and out of prison and continues to be a target for local security forces.

It was during the same year that Cordova was jailed for his participation in the killing of an elderly landowning couple in an arson attack. That the Mapuche have been “impoverished spiritually, culturally and economically by Chile” is an opinion widely felt by the community. However, according to Professor Nicolas Rojas Pedemonte, Cordova’s conviction made it tougher to win public sympathy for the leader’s fight. Pedemonte thinks that the case was “an inflection point for the conflict.” “It was the first fatal attack, it turned Chilean media against the Mapuche and was used by the state as a Trojan horse for a repressive response,” he added.

Four years later, the situation worsened after Camilo Catrillanca, a prominent, 24-year-old Mapuche activist, was shot and killed by agents of the Carabineros (Chile’s national police force). The killing was met with widespread outrage.

Following the rejection of Cordova’s appeal to be transferred to house arrest, citing the risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, he had been on a hunger strike for over 100 days. His case further exacerbated tensions in Chile already heightened by several months of social protests over inequality and increasing economic hardships since the pandemic. 

The current administration under the leadership of President Sebastián Piñera has enacted further draconian laws, including the controversial ‘Anti-Capucha’ (face covering) and ‘Anti-barricade’ laws earlier this year, using the recent social unrest as an excuse to punish any detractors with maximum penalties. Under these laws, anyone covering their faces or blocking the road during a demonstration can now face up to 10 years in prison,in effect criminalising social protests. According to Camila Vergara, the government’s plans in prioritising security over social demands is to subdue the popular uprising and prevent future outbreaks of social discontent.

Last year, representatives of Mapuche people petitioned the international criminal court (ICC) to take action against the government of Chile and Argentina for acts of genocide and crimes against humanity against the Mapuche. It is notable that indigenous groups in Cambodia and Canada have also presented accusations against their states for genocide and land-robbery, and although preliminary investigations have taken place, none have yet gone to court.

Mithurja is currently a BPTC Student at City University. She was born and raised in Germany into a Sri Lankan family. She grew up seeing the horrors of the Sri Lankan Civil War on the news and feeling the need to fight such injustices worldwide. She has an LLB from Kingston University and is interested in practising at the Bar of England and Wales. Her interests revolve around international criminal law human rights laws. Mithurja represented the UK at the international rounds at the ICC in the ICC Moot Court Competition 2019.

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