‘We’re still in the dark’: a missing land defender and the deadly toll of land conflict on Indigenous people

A sign at a protest over the disappearance of Julia Chuñil outside the presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, in January. Photograph: Ailen Diaz/The Guardian

One day last November, Julia Chuñil called for her dog, Cholito, and they set off into the woods around her home to search for lost livestock. The animals returned but Chuñil, who was 72 at the time, and Cholito did not.

More than 100 people joined her family in a search lasting weeks in the steep, wet and densely overgrown terrain of Chile’s ancient Valdivian forest. After a month, they even kept an eye on vultures for any grim signs. But they found no trace of Chuñil.