Lawyer Exposes Illegal Phone Taps by Chile’s Carabineros Amid Judicial Investigations

Original article: Abogada denuncia interceptaciones telefónicas ilegales de Carabineros

Manuela Royo revealed that her privacy was violated during judicial investigations in Wallmapu.

Through her social media and in conversations with El Ciudadano, lawyer Manuela Royo alleged that her personal phone was illegally intercepted by Chile’s Carabineros in 2017, without her knowledge of how long this continued. This breach of privacy occurred while she was defending Mapuche community members and was pregnant at the time.

Royo explained that this spying was conducted under the guise of the Intelligence Law and in the context of the Huracán Case, which exposed the creation of false evidence by the police. According to her, the Temuco Court of Appeals authorized these interceptions following specific requests from the Carabineros Intelligence Unit, also affecting her colleagues Karina Riquelme and Nelson Miranda.

The lawyer noted that this surveillance extended beyond her phone, as during the Luchsinger Mackay trial, she detected police officers monitoring her private residence. For Royo, these circumstances reflect a recurrent persecution against those who defend Indigenous rights in Araucanía: «Unfortunately, this is the reality for those of us who are human rights defenders here in southern Chile,» she stated.

Regarding legal actions, she confirmed that a lawsuit has been filed concerning these events, but asserted that there has been no real progress in the investigation to date. From her perspective, this judicial paralysis highlights a profound lack of state protocols to protect lawyers working in conflict zones with high media exposure.

Finally, Royo emphasized that the illegal intrusion into privacy by the State constitutes an undue burden on human rights defenders. Despite being aware of the risks associated with her work, she stressed that the normalization of spying and harassment towards professionals ensuring due process in criminalized cases must not be accepted.