Camilo Catrillanca

The face of Catrillanca as an icon of the protests against the government and police violence

Camilo Marcelo Catrillanca Marín (born September 13, 1994 in Victoria , Región de la Araucanía ; † November 14, 2018 in Ercilla ) was a Chilean activist who was shot in the head in November 2018 in Ercilla by members of a special police unit. The incident and its inconsistent treatment by the Chilean authorities sparked protests across the country.

backgrounds

Catrillanca in 2011 as a 17 year old

The 24-year-old Catrillanca, a member of the Mapuche ethnic group , lived in Ercilla with his wife and 6-year-old daughter. He was the grandson of Lonko Juan Catrillanca and son of the President of the Mapuche community "Ignacio Queipul Millanao" Marcelo Catrillanca. Camilo Catrillanca was already politically active as a teenager. For example, in 2011 he took part in student protests, which among other things led to the establishment of international educational institutions and scholarships.

The murder

Catrillanca was on his way from field work with a 15-year-old companion on his tractor when he was shot. According to the ballistic report, the bullet entered his head from behind and came from the weapon of police officer Carlos Alarcón . At the time of the murder, Alarcón was a member of the so-called " Comando Jungla " (German jungle command), a special unit of the Chilean police whose members were trained in fighting guerrilla groups in armed conflict in cooperation with Colombian authorities .

The 15-year-old, who accompanied Catrillanca on his tractor, was arrested and physically abused by the police, but survived the incident. The Chilean Instituto Nacional de Derechos Humanos (INDH) announced that it would file a criminal complaint for the mistreatment. Catrillanca died a few hours after being shot in the head.

A car theft, in which the allegedly convicted Catrillanca should have been involved, was initially named as the trigger for the police operation.

Reactions

Protests on November 15, 2018 in the capital Santiago de Chile

The murder, the subsequent reporting and inconsistencies in the official accounts led to nationwide protests that would last for weeks.

If it was initially said that Catrillanca had a criminal record and was involved in a car theft, this quickly turned out to be wrong. An alleged firefight between police units and the alleged car thieves also turned out to be a lie.

The 15-year-old companion of Catrillancas had stated to have seen how Alarcón took a memory card from his helmet camera and destroyed it. The police initially contradicted this and claimed that no pictures were taken during the operation. On November 18, Interior Minister and Vice-President Andrés Chadwick Piñera , a cousin of Chilean President Sebastián Piñera , corrected the official version that had been in effect until then and admitted that footage of Alarcón made with a GoPro helmet camera had been destroyed. The reason for the destruction of the memory card was alleged that it contained private material of a "personal situation with his partner", which led to speculation that members of the special unit, in addition to the already existing allegations, were using public funds for the creation of private pornographic material have been abused.

President Sebastián Piñera claimed on November 23 that a "Comando Jungla" did not even exist and that it was an invention of the media. This could also be quickly exposed as a lie, since internal and public communication papers of the Chilean authorities use the term.

In response to false statements and misconduct by the police and politicians, many sides called for the resignation of Interior Minister Chadwick and the director general of Carabineros Hermes Soto and for Comando Jungla to withdraw from the region.

Amnesty International called Catrillanca's murder "outrageous and alarming". The United Nations in Chile on November 16 expressed its condolences over the death of Catrillanca and called on the Chilean government to conduct a full and transparent investigation into the case.

See also

• Mapuche
• Arauco war
• History of Chile: Colonization of the South
• Mapuche conflict English / Spanish
• GOPE

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pascale Bonnefoy: Killing of Indigenous Man in Chile Spurs Criticism of Security Forces . In: The New York Times . November 25, 2018, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed December 31, 2018]).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} hneuber: False statements by police officers after the murder of Mapuche in Chile. December 8, 2018, accessed December 31, 2018 . 
3. ↑ ehaule: Chile: President Piñera continues to rely on the militarization of the Araucanía region. November 29, 2018, accessed December 31, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Camilo Catrillanca, una vida de lucha por el Pueblo Mapuche | Mapuexpress. Retrieved December 31, 2018 (European Spanish). 
5. ↑ Kindernothilfe Blog »Blog Archive» Violence in Chile: Police murder young Mapuche. Accessed January 1, 2019 (German). 
6. ↑ CNN Chile: Quién era Camilo Catrillanca, el comunero mapuche que murió tras ser baleado en la comunidad Temucuicui. Retrieved January 1, 2019 (Spanish). 
7. ↑ hneuber: false statements by police after murder of Mapuche in Chile. December 8, 2018, accessed January 1, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Rocío Montes: La muerte de un mapuche intensifica el conflicto en la Araucanía chilena . In: El País . November 15, 2018, ISSN  1134-6582 ( elpais.com [accessed January 1, 2019]).
9. ↑ INDH anuncia across ella por menor que tortura a acompañaba a Camilo Catrillanca. November 16, 2018, accessed January 1, 2019 (es-CL). 
10. ↑ 24 Horas cl Tvn: Ministro Chadwick confirma que carabinero destruyó registro de operativo donde murió Camilo Catrillanca. November 18, 2018, accessed January 1, 2019 (Spanish). 
11. ^ Esa era la verdad: Carabinero destruyó memoria porque tenía imágenes de sexo con su mujer - Fortín Mapocho. Retrieved January 1, 2019 (European Spanish). 
12. ^ Cooperativa.cl: Piñera: "No exist ningún Comando Jungla, eso es un invento de los medios". Retrieved January 1, 2019 (Spanish). 
13. ↑ Cooperativa.cl: Amnistía Internacional de calificó "indignante" y "alarm ante" la muerte de Camilo Catrillanca. Retrieved January 1, 2019 (Spanish). 
14. ↑ Declaración de la ONU en Chile por muerte de Camilo Catrillanca. In: Sistema de las Naciones Unidas En Chile. Retrieved January 1, 2019 (European Spanish).