Denuncia ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en contra del Estado de CHILE

This document is a formal complaint filed by members of the Mapuche-Pehuenche indigenous community of Ralco Lepoy against the State of Chile before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The petitioners allege that the Chilean government and the company ENDESA have violated their human rights through the construction of the Ralco Hydroelectric Project, which threatens to flood ancestral lands and destroy their cultural and religious identity.

• The petitioners argue that the Ralco Hydroelectric Project constitutes an 'ethnocide' because it threatens the total destruction of the Pehuenche people's culture, language (Mapudungun), and social structure by forcing them from their ancestral lands.
• The project's environmental authorization (Resolution No. 10 of June 6, 1997) by CONAMA explicitly conditioned the project's execution on the relocation of indigenous populations being carried out according to the Indigenous Law (Law 19.253), requiring voluntary land swaps (permutas) approved by CONADI.
• The petitioners allege that the Chilean government bypassed the Indigenous Law by using the 1982 Electric Law (D.F.L. No. 1) to impose 'flooding easements' (servidumbres de inundación) on non-swapped lands, effectively expropriating the land in exchange for money rather than land.
• The complaint describes a crisis within CONADI in 1998, where the President of the Republic allegedly removed the National Director and two council members who intended to reject the land swaps, subsequently appointing a non-indigenous director to approve them.
• The petitioners claim a denial of justice by Chilean courts, specifically citing a case where a protection resource filed within the legal 15-day limit was declared inadmissible as 'extemporaneous' by the Court of Appeals of Santiago.
• The project threatens the flooding of 14 out of 19 identified archaeological sites, including cemeteries and ceremonial spaces, which the petitioners state violates their right to maintain communion with their ancestors.
• The petitioners request urgent precautionary measures from the IACHR, including the immediate suspension of the Ralco Hydroelectric Project and the cessation of the land appraisal process conducted under the Electric Law.
• The document asserts that the State of Chile violated several articles of the American Convention on Human Rights, specifically the Right to Life (Art 4), Right to Personal Integrity (Art 5), Freedom of Conscience and Religion (Art 12), Right to a Fair Trial (Art 8), Right to Property (Art 21), and Right to Judicial Protection (Art 25).

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (n.d.). Denuncia ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en contra del Estado de CHILE. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/RALCO_Denuncia_CIDH.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Denuncia ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en contra del Estado de CHILE. n.d. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/RALCO_Denuncia_CIDH.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Denuncia ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en contra del Estado de CHILE |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/RALCO_Denuncia_CIDH.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallawnddenuncia, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Denuncia ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en contra del Estado de CHILE}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/RALCO_Denuncia_CIDH.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }