CRIME AND SETUP AS POLICIES TOWARDS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: THE HURRICANE CASE, THE JUNGLE COMMANDO AND THEIR EFFECTS ON MAPUCHE CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

This article is about the criminalization of the Mapuche communities that have become mobilized in the last decades around political and territorial demands. It is based on several case-studies, as well as on the authors’ own experience in the areas of criminal defence and strategic litigation in the context of the Mapuche demands. In its first section, we explain how criminalization has actually become public policy. Next, we go on to analyse two key cases—the Hurricane case and the murder of Camilo Catrillanca—that show how the Mapuche communities, with the support of public, independent lawyers, have used the law against the Chilean government itself. Finally, the article presents the effects of such criminalization, especially on the children, adolescents and youth of the resisting Mapuche communities. The several cases which are analysed corroborate the systemic and generalized policy of criminalization of the Mapuche movement, which leads us to conclude that both crime and setup are part of the present policies of the Chilean state in response not only to legitimate demands concerning the internationally acknowledged rights of indigenous peoples, but also to other related demands regarding the democratization of the country and its judicial system.