Solidarity and Outcry: 800+ Join Yaguel Lavkenche’s Call for Justice for Julia Chuñil

The Mapuche organization Yaguel Lavkenche issued a statement regarding the case of Julia Chuñil, which has been endorsed by more than 850 people, including members of organizations and individual supporters.

Yaguel Lavkenche is a Mapuche organization focused on recovering and revitalizing ancestral knowledge connected to the traditional food systems of the Lafkenche Mapuche people.

The statement followed a September 30 press conference convened by Julia’s family, where they revealed allegations that Chuñil had been burned along with her dog, Cholito. 

In response, the organization declared: “The Chilean state is inherently a colonial apparatus that exerts control over our bodies and territories to facilitate private property and investment by domestic and foreign settlers.”

They also stated that since its inception, the republican order has marginalized Indigenous, popular, traditional, and rural communities, revealing an elitist, authoritarian, and racist political system.

Likewise, they rejected the judiciary’s exercise of “justice,” asserting that throughout history it has fabricated accusations against Mapuche defenders to brand them as terrorists. 

At the same time, they condemned the Ministerio Público, noting that despite having an authorized phone interception of Juan Carlos Morstadt Anwandter in which he allegedly acknowledged that Julia Chuñil had been burned, that evidence was ignored—demonstrating an abandonment of its duty to “defend the rights” of people, the land, and territories.

The document adds: “We denounce the judicial racism of the Chilean state, which has gone to great lengths to blame the family of our papay (elder) Julia Chuñil, applying pressure through the unlawful arrest of one of our lamuen (sister) Julia’s daughters so she would incriminate herself for our papay’s disappearance and homicide. Even today, there is legal evidence showing that the Ministerio Público is assembling false evidence and undercover witnesses so that, this time, one of Julia’s sons is accused of her homicide—despite the decisive proof of the intercepted phone call by Juan Carlos Morstadt Anwandter, who stated with absolute certainty that Julia Chuñil ‘was burned.’”

In the same vein, they rejected and denounced what they describe as the prosecutor’s systematic effort to accuse Chuñil’s family of her disappearance and killing through fabricated evidence and protected-identity witnesses. “This reveals the influence of large landowners within the judiciary, which shields a foreign settler by omitting evidence that implicates Juan Carlos Morstadt Anwandter as a participant in the homicide of our ñaña (sister) Julia Chuñil Catricura”. 

In addition, the organization expressed profound sorrow over the “legalized violence exercised by the State of Chile and its institutions against us, the Indigenous peoples on this side of the world, and over how our mapu-tierra—the land that sustains life—is despised and commodified by the interests of domestic and foreign settlers throughout Wallmapu and Chile.”

They also called on the public to remain alert to requests from Julia’s family in order to press institutional bodies such as the Ministerio Público, CONDA, SENAMA, INDH, SERNAMEG, among others.

Finally, they concluded: “We decree that in our memory and in the struggles of our peoples you will live for all time, tirelessly revitalizing your legacy; our papay Julia stands as an example of resistance for both future and ancestral generations. They will claim your legacy. ¡¡¡Marrichiwew!!!”

You can download the list of more than 880 organizations and individuals who have endorsed this statement by clicking here.

You can also review the full statement at the following link: file:///C:/Users/itscl/Downloads/Llaguel.pdf