December 29, 2018
Following the massive protests that followed Camillo Catrillanca's murder by the state, there were discussions about the existence of video material of his murder. This information came to the surface, when Maikol Castillo, the youth that was accompanying Catrillanca on the day of his murder, was set free of the interrogation by the police. He told his lawyer that an officer had changed the SD Card of the bodycam he was carrying. This information put the government in a spot, in which they had to explain themselves, since the first official story made no mention of a camera.
The first official story only made mention of the officers firing their weapons. They explained the lack of camera and recordings with the seemingly "spontaneous and unexpected character of the situation". After the presence of a camera was known, the explanations started to contradict each other. Under this new pressure the officer, who had made the recording, had to confess that there had been a camera and recordings, but he said he had destroyed the evidence. To add to the "credibility" of the story the interior minister said he had done so, because it cointained compromising pictures of the officer and his wife. Furthermore, the state resigned four officers, who had been in the case and two high ranking officers had been demoted. But the box was already open and there was no closing. the corner the state had been driven to was becoming smaller and smaller and it all came crashing down, when the officer, who fired the shots confessed openly and the video was released.
While noone believed the official story to begin with, the leaked material shows with full clarity the crude reality of the politics and repression of the Chilean state towards the Mapuche people. The multiple attempts of the Chilean state to cover up the case by discrediting Catrillanca's reputation and branding him a car thief, justifying his death, because apparently that's what criminals (especially Mapuche criminals) deserve and (when forced to admit the complete mess they've created) by openly lying in the worst possible of ways.
The Chilean state has magnificently managed to anger the Chilean population beyond measure. Whatever credibility they still had, is nothing more but shambles. Chile is a powder keg about to explode. The situation has stirred the whole country and driven the state into a situation, where they are in need of explanations, but they cannot deliver. It's the end of the line. There will be no halting the coming protests. Now more than ever the Mapuche people's cause is to be upheld, for it is a just cause!
End the oppression and exploitation towards the Mapuche people!
Justice for Camilo Catrillanca!
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