Fears for Chilean indigenous leader's safety after police shooting
Alberto Curamil, an award-winning environmental activist, was seriously injured during a protest against the burning of a Mapuche home
Liam Miller
Wed 30 Jun 2021 05.52 EDT
https://tinyurl.com/vhjxf2nm
Alberto Curamil a Mapuche leader who in 2019 won the Goldman Environmental Prize was left with 18 riot shotgun pellets embedded in his body. Photograph: Vicente Franco/Handout
Liam Miller
Wed 30 Jun 2021 05.52 EDT
Former recipients of a prestigious environmental award, together with Amnesty International and the lawyer of indigenous land rights defender Alberto Curamil, have launched an appeal for Curamil’s safety after he was seriously injured in a shooting by police.
Curamil, an indigenous Mapuche leader who in 2019 won the Goldman Environmental Prize (GEP), also known as the “green Nobel”, was left with 18 riot shotgun pellets embedded in his body after police chased his truck and opened fire after a protest against an arson attack on a Mapuche home on contested land in southern Chile.
Former winners of the GEP, Craig Williams and Alfred Brownell, are writing to Chile’s president, Sebastián Piñera, and the country’s US ambassador, Alfonso Silva Navarro, to push for further investigation into the shooting.
Amnesty International will contact the Chilean justice department to seek answers to questions about the attack and the burning of the home of Mapuche community spokesperson Elena Paine, which sparked the protest where Curamil was injured.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/30/fears-for-chilean-indigenous-leaders-safety-after-police-shooting
