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HRD Attack

18 Mar 2020

Camila Bustamante Álvarez Secretaría de Ecología y Medio Ambiente de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile

Incident date
18 Mar 2020
Date accuracy
All Correct
Female
Environmental concerns group
Intimidation & threats
Target: Individual
Location of Incident: Chile

Sources

Camila Bustamante Álvarez is a woman human rights defender who works on the promotion and protection of environmental rights. She is a member of the Secretaría de Ecología y Medio Ambiente de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (Secretariat for Ecology and Environment of the University of Chile Student Federation) and the Movimiento por El Agua y los Territorios (Movement for Water and Territories), where she organises social mobilisation activities to promote access to water by marginalised communities in Chile, against the privatisation of water. On 18 March 2020, Camila Bustamante Álvarez started receiving threatening pictures, including sexual images, sent by a group of men on a WhatsApp chat to which she was added by the perpetrators. In addition to sending threatening pictures of a misogynistic character, the perpetrators verbally abused Camila Bustamante Álvarez for supporting water de-privatisation. When she warned them that she would place a formal complaint for harassment, they made death threats against her, using pictures of guns with captions such as “I will kill you” or “walk carefully". Frontline defenders states, "Environmental rights defenders working on the right to water are often targeted in Chile, due to the pressure exerted by private companies who have been responsible for water distribution since its privatisation in 1981. Despite their regular failure to supply water to some Chilean communities, these companies are not held accountable."