Chileans Pay Tribute to Denisse Cortes

On Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators paid tribute to Denisse Cortes, a human rights defender who was killed during the Mapuche Resistance March on Oct. 10.

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Rallies in honor of her memory took place the day before the anniversary of the social unrest against President Sebastian Piñera that began on Oct 18, 2019. Several protests and demonstrations are also planned to take place throughout the country on Monday.

Citizens criticized the recent declaration of "State of Emergency" in La Araucania region, which will allow Piñera to increase the military presence in the Mapuche territory.

Cortes was a law student and an active advocate for Indigenous rights. According to the Police version, she died as a result of a firework device thrown by the protesters. Eyewitnesses, however, argue otherwise. The investigation into her murder remains open.

Her mother rejects that explanation, however, and states that even if the cause of the fatality was not directly an act of the police force, public forces remain guilty of instigating the violence in the first place. She also claims that the police did not allow the ambulance to reach Cortes in time which contributed to her death.

On Oct 16, the Cortes family was robbed at gunpoint by unknown assailants who stole their car. Social movements have called for an investigation of this events in fear that the crime could be politically motivated.

Protests and violence have increased in the country as a result of the corruption of top political figures, police repression, and the lack of actions by the government to address the original demands that started the 2019 civil unrest.