"One day last November, Julia Chunil called for her dog, Cholito, and they set off into the woods around her home to search for lost livestock. The animals returned but Chunil, who was 72 at the time, and Cholito did not. More than 100 people joined her family in a search lasting weeks in the steep, wet and densely overgrown terrain of Chile's ancient Valdivian forest. After a month, they even kept an eye on vultures for any grim signs."
"She spent years campaigning to secure land rights over the site for her community. But the site's nominal owner, the descendant of settlers, refused to relinquish control. He wanted the site for logging Chile is a major supplier of wood to the US and he wanted rid of Chunil. Before she vanished, Chunil told supporters: If anything happens to me, you already know who did it."
A 72-year-old Mapuche leader, Julia Chunil, disappeared in Chile's Valdivian forest while searching for livestock and was not found despite extensive community searches. Chunil occupied Reserva Cora, a 900-hectare area claimed as ancestral land, and campaigned to secure land rights against a nominal owner who sought logging access. Global Witness recorded 146 land and environmental defenders killed or disappeared worldwide last year and has documented 2,253 cases since 2012. About one third of last year’s victims were Indigenous, although Indigenous peoples make up roughly 6% of the global population. Latin America accounted for 82% of cases in 2024. Land conflict drives much of the violence.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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