Chile: Environmental defender, Camila Bustamante Álvarez, received misogynistic attacks and death threats for her activism against the privatisation of water
“Misogynistic attack and death threats against environmental rights defender Camila Bustamante Álvarez”, 26th March 2020
…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.
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”…