Abstract
The approval of 17 compensation agreements to resolve domestic violence cases in Mapuche indigenous communities has led to intense controversy in southern Chile. These agreements are based on the principle of internal conflict resolution promoted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169. These agreements have traditionally been banned in cases of domestic violence and have resulted in significant legal controversy over the recognition of indigenous juridicity which, following media coverage, has become a public concern about violence against women in the Mapuche community context. Studying the development of the controversy, its sociolegal analysis, the positioning of these actors and the case of a compensation agreement in the context of domestic violence enables us to see that the latter reflects more general issues connected to the history of Chilean society’s relationship with the Mapuche, the relationship of the law and its officers with indigenous culture, and cultural differences.
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Notes
- 1.
In Chilean law, the Lower Court’s judge (juez de garantía) is responsible for ensuring that persons taking part in the trial have the benefit of their full rights.
- 2.
Juzgado de Letras y Garantía.
- 3.
In Chilean law, the compensation agreement means an agreement between the person accused of having committed a fault or offence and the victim; it puts an end to the criminal procedure initiated.
- 4.
In the case of the Chilean Mapuche, a community is composed of families of one or several lineages who have regrouped and live mainly in rural environments. It is estimated that 20% of Mapuche people live in these communities. Because of the shortage of land in a great number of these communities, the main productive activity of their inhabitants is small-scale farming and breeding. The terms “reserve” (reservas) or “reductions” (reducciones) are also used to refer to Mapuche communities.
- 5.
The notion of juridicity refers to the procedural, dynamic, practical and multi-faceted dimension of the law. It is defined by Étienne Leroy as “the ability of social practices to fulfil an aim by a constraint. As the aim is to ensure that the conditions of life in society are restored, constraint is the sanction and not necessarily the punishment, but the recognition through various processes or procedures of the obligatory nature of the normative provisions implemented. (…) If all law is juridicity, juridicity may (…) very seldom be submitted to the law. It may therefore be considered that, from an essentially pragmatic perspective, we shall be working on a variety of traditions, even within a single society; on a range of systems in time and space; and, finally, on relative solutions. Our whole approach is part of an epistemological perspective falling within the province of legal pluralism, particularly in its multi-legalist version” (Leroy, 2011, pp. 26–27).
- 6.
It is important to note that this estimate is contested in the light of other censuses carried out, particularly the 2012 census which indicated that about one and a half million people said they belonged to the Mapuche people. These results were later declared invalid.
- 7.
El Mercurio, owned by the Edwards family whose members have great influence in the political, economic and literary spheres, is the largest newspaper group in the country, with 3 national titles, 20 or so regional newspapers and e-newspapers, a television channel and several radio stations. El Mercurio and its different newspapers are noted for their conservative editorial line, illustrated by their support for the military dictatorship and, more recently, the publication of editorials and articles contesting the legitimacy of Mapuche political claims.
- 8.
The late María del Rosario Salamanca (1958–2014) is also known for having conducted research from a militant perspective on Mapuche juridicity and popularised the concept of “independent Mapuche law” (COTAM, 2003) before attempting to apply her research in the context of defence strategies when she was a Public Defence lawyer.
- 9.
Officially called intercultural facilitators (facilitadores interculturales) to stress the mediation aspect of their work.
- 10.
This neologism, usually considered as the murder of a woman by her partner or ex-partner constitutes aggravating circumstances under Chilean law.
- 11.
Over the past 30 years, Chile, like many other Latin American countries, has undertaken a reform of criminal justice, so as to transform an inquisitorial system, considered to be opaque and contrary to fundamental principles such as the presumption of innocence, into an accusatory, oral and public system.
- 12.
The criteria recommended in the document are self-identification as a Mapuche, the possession of a document confirming the person’s indigenous identity, his surnames, his use of the indigenous language and his membership of an indigenous community or organisation (Defensoría Penal Pública, 2012, p. 193).
- 13.
In English-speaking countries, these practices are associated with a phenomenon that has become widespread over the past 40 years and goes under the name of “Cultural Defence” (Renteln, 2004).
- 14.
These discursive positions were gathered during a series of interviews conducted with public prosecutors and officials from the prosecution in Araucania region between 2013 and 2015; they need to be set in perspective even if their effect on reality is undeniable. Ethnographic observation of trials, analysis of decisions and study of the courses adopted by these agents in fact shows that they are inclined to use rhetoric of an anthropological and cultural nature in order to deny or affirm the specific details of the accused or the victims, using their own intercultural facilitators as a resource.
- 15.
This same statement appears just as it stands in six decisions returned by the Temuco court of appeal.
- 16.
- 17.
Hearings at Juzgado de Letras y Garantía de Carahue, 1 December 2011, Case number 536-2011.
- 18.
Hearings at Juzgado de Letras y Garantía de Carahue, 29 December 2011, Case number 680-2011.
- 19.
Article 54 of Law No. 19,253 indicates that the “The custom invoked in proceedings between indigenous people belonging to the same ethnic group constitutes a right, as long as it is not irreconcilable with the political constitution of the Republic. In criminal matters, it will be considered when it would serve as a precedent in applying attenuating circumstances or exemption from responsibility. When the custom has to be substantiated in a trial, it can be attempted by all means authorised by the law and, in particular, by an expert report”.
- 20.
Hearings at Juzgado de Letras y Garantía de Carahue, 29 December 2011, Case number 680-2011.
- 21.
Hale and Millaman (2006) refer to this dichotomy in a comparative study of Chile and Guatemala, explaining that it goes back to the neoliberal cultural project. The policies arising from this project, now referred to as “neoliberal multiculturalism” seek to open up areas in which indigenous communities can participate, while at the same time assigning limits to their aspirations for change, thus producing this descriptive distinction between “Indios permitidos” (approved or tolerated), “Indios proyecto” (those applying for government funding through official programmes or projects), “Indios rebeldes” (rebels) and “Indios terroristas”. As Boccara (2011) has shown, participation in the assistance and ethno-development programmes instigated in the context of these policies, and obtaining matching resources, often depend on the way native peoples set out their stall and demonstrate their difference and indigenousness by emphasising the exterior signs of being Indian, such as clothing, language and “cosmovision”, to the detriment of political discourse and practices.
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Le Bonniec, F. (2020). Indigenous Juridicity and Cultural Differences: When Judges Discuss Culture in Cases of Domestic Violence in the Mapuche Community Context (Chile). In: Payàs, G., Le Bonniec, F. (eds) Intercultural Studies from Southern Chile. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52363-3_5
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