OBSERVACIONES SOBRE LA ADMISIBILIDAD DE LA PETICIÓN

This document consists of observations submitted by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) and a legal team to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in June 2003. It responds to objections raised by the State of Chile regarding the admissibility of a petition filed by Mapuche-Pehuenche families from the Ralco-Lepoy Indigenous Community. The petition alleges that the construction of the Ralco hydroelectric dam by the company Endesa, authorized by the Chilean state, violates fundamental rights including the right to life, personal integrity, property, and the preservation of indigenous culture and spirituality through the flooding of ancestral lands.

• The petitioners, members of the Mapuche-Pehuenche Ralco-Lepoy Indigenous Community, allege that the Ralco Project involves the flooding and destruction of approximately 22,000 hectares of ancestral territory, violating their rights to life, personal integrity, and the maintenance of their culture and religion.
• The document argues that the Chilean state has failed to provide effective judicial remedies, claiming that courts have allowed the project to proceed despite the irreversible nature of the environmental and cultural damage, effectively creating a situation of 'accomplished facts' (hechos consumados).
• A first-instance ruling by the Sixth Civil Court of Santiago on May 15, 2003, declared the administrative acts of the National Commission for the Environment (CONAMA) regarding the Ralco project's environmental impact assessment (EIA) to be null and void, though this ruling was suspended due to an appeal by CONAMA.
• The legal team asserts that the domestic resources were inadequate and ineffective, citing an 'unjustified delay' in judicial decisions, such as a protection resource that took 18 months to be decided and a nullity process that took nearly six years for a first-instance ruling.
• Economic analysis presented in the document suggests that the Ralco project is an economic liability for Chile, costing US$ 72 million more from a social perspective than a combined-cycle gas plant alternative, and was driven by Endesa's desire to maintain a dominant market position against cheaper natural gas imports from Argentina.
• The document criticizes Chile's indigenous policy, stating that the 1993 Indigenous Law (Law 19.253) fails to recognize indigenous groups as 'peoples' (pueblos), referring to them instead as 'ethnicities' (etnias), which denies them collective rights to autonomy and self-determination.
• The report alleges systemic discrimination against indigenous people in the Chilean judicial system, specifically the use of the State Security Law and Anti-Terrorist Law to criminalize land claims and the frequent denial of the right to use native languages in court.
• The document reports a specific instance of police violence resulting in the death of 17-year-old Alex Lemun in November 2002, who was shot in the head by a Carabineros officer in Ercilla.
• The petitioners request that the IACHR ask the State of Chile to immediately stop all actions leading to the forced relocation of indigenous families and to prevent Endesa from flooding non-exchanged indigenous lands.

APA

Celedón, R., & Orellana, M. A. (2003). OBSERVACIONES SOBRE LA ADMISIBILIDAD DE LA PETICIÓN. Center for International Environmental Law. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Ralco_OBSERVACIONES_June03.pdf

Chicago

Celedón, Roberto, and Marcos A. Orellana. OBSERVACIONES SOBRE LA ADMISIBILIDAD DE LA PETICIÓN. Center for International Environmental Law, 2003. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Ralco_OBSERVACIONES_June03.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Celedón |first1=Roberto |last2=Orellana |first2=Marcos A. |title=OBSERVACIONES SOBRE LA ADMISIBILIDAD DE LA PETICIÓN |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=June 2003 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Ralco_OBSERVACIONES_June03.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{celedn2003observaciones, author = {Celedón, Roberto and Orellana, Marcos A.}, title = {{OBSERVACIONES SOBRE LA ADMISIBILIDAD DE LA PETICIÓN}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2003}, month = jun, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Ralco_OBSERVACIONES_June03.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }