Environmental activists in Chile have called for justice after a 42-year-old land defender was found dead with her hands and feet bound.
The body of Javiera Rojas was found buried under a pile of clothes in an abandoned house on Sunday in Calama in the northern region of Antofagasta.
Rojas was well known in northern Chile for her participation in protests against the Prime Thermoelectric project. She was also involved in the successful campaign to cancel the construction of the Tranca dam in 2016, which threatened to harm local wildlife and rob communities of water access.
Two men, including Rojas’s partner, have been placed under preventive arrest while a 200-day investigation is carried out.
Politicians have called on prosecutors to investigate the circumstances of her death. “Whether the result of femicide or because of her activism, it is very serious,” tweeted the Antofagasta deputy Catalina Pérez.
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