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On a certain day last November, the Indigenous leader Julia Chuñil summoned her canine companion, her loyal pet, and they set off into the woods around her home to look for missing farm animals. The cattle came back but Julia, who was 72 at the time, and her dog never reappeared.

Over 100 people participated with her family in a hunt that continued for weeks in the steep, rain-soaked and thickly vegetated terrain of Chile’s pristine Valdivian forest. A month later, they monitored scavenger birds for any disturbing clues. But they found no trace of the missing woman.

Chuñil is among one hundred forty-six territorial and ecological defenders who were murdered or went missing globally in the previous year, according to a study by the advocacy organization the monitoring entity. About a third of those, like her, were from Indigenous communities – a significant toll for peoples who together make up only 6% of the global population.

The activist, a leader of Chile’s indigenous Mapuche, was residing in disputed land. A decade earlier she had moved on to a protected forest area, a 2,200-acre section of the ancient Valdivian forest 500 miles below Santiago, which her community claimed as an ancestral homeland.

For many years she advocating to secure property titles for the location for her tribe. However, the site’s nominal owner, the heir of colonizers, declined to surrender ownership. His intention was the site for timber extraction – Chile is a major exporter of wood to the United States – and he sought to remove the activist. Prior to her disappearance, Chuñil informed supporters: “If anything happens to me, it will be clear who is responsible.”

Global Documentation on Attacks Against Activists

Global Witness began recording cases of killings and disappearances of land and environmental defenders in 2012. Since then, it has collated a total of two thousand two hundred fifty-three cases. Over the last ten years, the most dangerous region has been Central and South America. Last year it accounted for eighty-two percent of cases, including forty-five Indigenous people.

“Land conflict lies at the core of violence against defenders, and Indigenous peoples are bearing the greatest cost,” stated an expert at the group. “Communities with historical ties to territory often lead the opposition when their lands come under threat from exploitation and invasion. But despite their vital function, they are frequently refused recognition and justice, and subjected to grave danger for protecting their rightful territories.”

Country-Specific Statistics and Unrecorded Cases

Julia’s was the only incident recorded in her nation during that period, even though it fitted a pattern of the targeting of Mapuche activists in the country. The nation of Colombia reported 48 instances, making it the deadliest nation in total for environmental defenders, followed by the country of Guatemala with twenty cases, the most dangerous country per capita. The country of Mexico had 19 cases, putting it in third place in the ranking.

Incomplete data continues to be a problem, particularly in the Asian continent and the African region, which registered 16 and nine instances each, Global Witness said. In general, last year the lowest number of incidents of murders and disappearances of land activists were registered for a decade.

Laura Furones, who led the investigation for Global Witness, said: “It would be gratifying to report that this suggests a decrease in violence and an improvement in the situation for activists, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Rights advocates confront situations of brutality that go far beyond murder. What violence often does is transform, grow more complex, change its face.”

Continuing Fight for Justice

Chuñil’s family have persisted in seeking justice but their advocacy has made them a target of intimidation and harassment, too. In April, a pair of creatures from Chuñil’s home that they had intended to sell to finance court expenses were discovered dead, one shot and another by toxins. “It is, above all, a deliberate effort to block us from fighting this legal matter,” her son a family member told the watchdog.

The group’s report urges authorities to take steps to halt the lack of punishment of the perpetrators of environmental defenders by tackling the lack of rights activists have over land and territory, reinforcing weak domestic judiciary frameworks, and ensuring endangered advocates are given sufficient government security.

“All we are asking for is a comprehensive, impartial probe to be conducted,” San Martín said of his mother’s case. “Nearly twelve months have passed since she disappeared and we’re remain unaware about the events. We want those behind this to be discovered and prosecuted.”