Camilo Marcelo Catrillanca Marín (13 September 1994 – 14 November 2018) was a

Mapuche The Mapuche ( , ) also known as Araucanians are a group of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging e ...

farmer from

Temucuicui Temucuicui or Temocuicui (from ''Mapudungun'' ''Temu kuykuy'', " temu bridge") is a locality made up a group of Mapuche communities in the commune of Ercilla, Malleco Province, Araucanía Region, in Chile. The Mapuche communities established them ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

who was shot to death by the Chilean police force under suspicious circumstances. The incident led to protests against

police violence Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...

, and occurred in the broader context of the ongoing conflict over Mapuche civil rights.

Biography

Camilo Catrillanca was a grandson of the former Mapuche chief Juan Catrillanca and son of Marcelo Catrillanca, the president of the "Ignacio Queipul Millanao" Mapuche community. He was a leader of the student movement in the Liceo de Pailahueque and worked for the reclamation of Mapuche lands in Ercilla, in the Chilean region of La Araucanía. In 2011, he led a protest by a group of high school students in Ercilla, which ended 13 days later, after reaching an agreement to create an intercultural high school and to increase scholarships. At the time of his death he had a 6-year-old daughter, and his wife was pregnant.

Death

Catrillanca was killed by a shot he received in the head on November 14, 2018, in

, a

community located in Ercilla, located in the

Araucanía Region The Araucanía ( ), La Araucanía Region ( ) is one of Chile's 16 first-order administrative divisions, and comprises two provinces: Malleco in the north and Cautín in the south. Its capital and largest city is Temuco; other important cities ...

of Southern Chile, during an operation carried out by a unit of the Special Police Operations Group of Carabineros called the "Tactical Reaction Group", and known in the press as the "Jungle Commando". Catrillanca was riding with a 15-year-old teenager on a tractor when he was shot in the back of the neck by Jungle Commando squad member who suspected the two of involvement with car theft among others. The teenager who was traveling next to Catrillanca, identified by the initials MACP, who was the primary witness of his death, was arrested along with three other people by the Carabineros, but his arrest was declared to have been illegal, and he was released. MACP reported he had been severely beaten by police during the arrest. The National Institute of Human Rights announced a criminal complaint for the torture to which MACP had been subjected during his detention.

Conflicting versions of events

The police report stated that the shooting occurred as the carabineros were investigating the theft of three teachers' cars from the Santa Rosa School of Ancapi Ñancucheo, in Ercilla. After a chase, the carabineros managed to recover two vehicles. Both the police and the government said that Catrillanca was involved with the crime. The community of Temucuicui denied this version, stating that the "Jungle Commandos" entered the town firing bursts of bullets, without provocation, and that the Human Rights Unit of the La Araucanía Public Prosecutor's Office announced it would investigate the facts of the case. CATRAFTA-2

The mayor of La Araucanía, Luis Mayol, said on 14 November that Catrillanca "had a history of receiving stolen vehicles". On 16 November, Congresswoman Pamela Jiles published Catrillanca's background sheet, which indicated that he had no criminal record. Interior Minister

Andrés Chadwick Andrés Pío Bernardino Chadwick Piñera (born 2 January 1956) is a Chilean right-wing politician and lawyer, member of the Independent Democrat Union (UDI) party. He began his political career as a supporter of the Pinochet dictatorship, and wa ...

said that Catrillanca did have a police record, though not a criminal record, and that he had been arrested on October 22, 2018, for receiving stolen property, but that he had not been convicted. The Carabineros asserted on 17 November that the events had not been recorded by its officers, but the following day the government announced that Catrillanca's death was recorded on video, but that said recordings had been destroyed by Carabineros. It was also announced that four carabineros had been dismissed, and that two high-ranking officers had resigned; La Araucanía mayor Luis Mayol also subsequently resigned. Two police videos of Catrillanca's death were found in December 2018, and they show that Catrillanca was unarmed, conflicting with previous assertions by the officers involved. Following this revelation, Chilean president

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique (; 1 December 1949 – 6 February 2024) was a Chilean businessman and politician who served as President of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic Party (C ...

forced the resignation of the national police chief, Hermes Soto, as well as ten other police commanders.

Responses to his death

Catrillanca's death led to protests and demonstrations in Santiago and other cities. Opposition leaders and rights groups called for the dismantling of the Jungle Commando units and the resignation of Interior Minister Andrés Chadwick.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

described the killing as "outrageous and alarming".

Investigations

Interior Minister Chadwick and his undersecretary, Rodrigo Ubilla, were summoned to testify before the congressional human rights commission and the state attorney general to answer questions both about Catrillanca's case itself and about police obstruction in the investigation. Jungle Commando leader Manuel Valdivieso resigned after he was accused of lying about the case and forcing those in his command to lie as well. Carlos Alarcon, the main suspect in Catrillanca's killing, testified that Valdivieso and a lawyer forced him and others to lie about the attack, saying that Catrillanca was attacking them with firearms and that there was no body camera footage of the events.

References

External links

Video of Camilo Cantrillanca's involvement with the student protests in Ercilla in 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Catrillanca, Camilo 2018 deaths 2018 controversies Deaths by firearm in Chile Deaths by person in Chile Law enforcement controversies in Chile Mapuche conflict November 2018 crimes in South America November 2018 in Chile People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Chile Police brutality in the 2010s