Chilean Mapuche Leader Julia Chuñil Remains Missing for 128 Days
Mapuche leader Julia Chuñil. X/ @GatoNegroBC
March 17, 2025 Hour: 1:45 pm
‘She was fighting against a very powerful landowner,’ said her granddaughter.
On Monday, the silence of the government of Chilean President Gabriel Boric sparked criticism from the relatives of Julia Chuñil, a 70-year-old Indigenous woman and environmental defender who has been missing for 128 days.
RELATED:
Fires in Argentine Patagonia: Mapuche Communities Face Repression and Criminalization
“She was protecting 900 hectares of native forest. She was fighting against a very powerful landowner,” said the Mapuche leader’s granddaughter, Lyssette Sanchez.
“All she wanted was to protect the ancestral lands,” she added during a gathering of territorial defenders organized by Pañuelos en Rebeldia and Feministas de Abya Yala.
The Indigenous leader disappeared without a trace on November 8, 2024, when she climbed a hill accompanied by her three dogs, two of which returned home. Her disappearance occurred in the Ciruelos sector, located on the border of the Mafil commune, in the Los Rios Region.
“To this day, no traces of her have been found,” the outlet Resumen Latinoamericano reported, recalling that Chuñil had received death threats before she disappeared.
The Boric administration has not provided any answers regarding what happened, despite repeated protests from Chuñil’s family as well as environmental and human rights organizations.
Chuñil’s family insists that the Indigenous leader was kidnapped “by specialized individuals” and has filed a lawsuit for homicide, kidnapping, and femicide against those responsible.
Meanwhile, the Chilean Prosecutor’s Office has remained silent about the efforts made in recent months to find Julia, arguing that it wants to preserve the “confidentiality of the investigation.”
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: Resumen Latinoamericano – La Izquierda Diario
