Victory for Chilean Defenders and La Campana-Peñuelas Biosphere Reserve

We are pleased to share that Chile’s Court of Appeals in Valparaíso has unanimously upheld the acquittal of five environmental and human rights defenders who were unjustly criminalized for peacefully opposing a high-voltage transmission project in La Campana-Peñuelas, a UN Biosphere Reserve.

“This case stands as a landmark example of the growing trend of criminalizing environmental defenders — a tactic increasingly employed across Latin America to suppress public participation and silence dissent,” says Miguel Fredes, ELAW partner and Director of Defensoria Climatica (photo at right). “It marks the first verdict of its kind since the adoption of the Escazú Agreement, reinforcing its promise to protect those who defend the environment.”

ELAW’s Defenders Team provided critical support to the unjustly criminalized defenders.

“This decision reaffirms not only their innocence, but also the right of communities to speak out in defense of the environment without fear of persecution,” says Luciano Coco Pastrana, Attorney, ELAW Defending Defenders Program.

Since 2016, local residents and civil society organizations have worked to protect La Campana-Peñuelas. In 2019, several members of this community were targeted by criminal complaints filed by the energy multinational behind the project.

After a lengthy and complex legal process, a trial court in Limache issued a historic ruling in January 2025, acquitting all five accused. That verdict was challenged by the company, but the Appeals Court rejected the motion in full. The Appeals Court upheld the lower court’s decision which recognized that the defendants’ actions stemmed from legitimate environmental concerns and that peaceful protest in a protected biosphere reserve cannot be equated with criminal behavior.

In March 2024, the Defenders Team submitted an amicus curiae brief before the Chilean Constitutional Court, arguing that Article 272 of Chile’s Penal Code, used as the basis for prosecuting the activists’ peaceful protest as a form of “opposition to a public work,” violates international human rights standards by unduly restricting freedom of expression, association, assembly, and the right to protest. The brief also outlined the obligations of the Chilean state to protect environmental defenders under the Escazú Agreement, which Chile ratified in September 2022.

Although the Constitutional Court declined to rule directly on the constitutionality of the Article, it acknowledged that Chilean courts must interpret domestic law in light of international treaties — particularly those that protect the rights of people in vulnerable situations.

This case is one of the first in Chile to test the practical application of the Escazú Agreement, the first regional treaty that specifically safeguards environmental defenders. It reinforces the principles of access to information, public participation, and environmental justice, and it places binding obligations on governments to protect those who raise their voices against environmental harm.

Congratulations to our partners and communities in Chile that made this victory possible!

Dr. Charis Kamphuis
Attorney, Defending Defenders Program
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide

For more information see:

Radio del Mar. April 9, 2025. Justicia absuelve a defensores ambientales que fueron hostigados por multinacional eléctrica que los llevó a tribunales

Diario Constitucional. April 9, 2025. Corte valida protesta ambiental y rechaza nulidad en caso de oposición a proyecto eléctrico.