Abstract

This article explores the structural and institutional violence experienced by the Mapuche people in the context of forestry extractivism in southern Chile, focusing on the emblematic case of machi Francisca Linconao. In 2009, Linconao filed a legal injunction against a forestry company for failing to conduct the prior consultation required under ILO Convention 169. The Chilean Supreme Court ruled in her favour, setting a landmark legal precedent for the protection of Indigenous rights. However, she was subsequently subjected to persecution, criminalisation, and extended pre-trial detention under inhumane conditions, severely affecting her physical and emotional well-being. Drawing on a decolonial perspective, this article analyses the case of Linconao within a broader pattern of racialised state violence, media stigmatisation, and the securitisation of Mapuche territories. It argues that the use of Chile’s Anti-Terrorism Law against Indigenous leaders reflects a neo-colonial logic of discipline that criminalises Indigenous resistance and reinforces extractive territorial control. Methodologically, the study employs Critical Discourse Analysis of national and independent media coverage between 201 and 2022, complemented by legal documents and Indigenous scholarship. The analysis highlights how dominant narratives frame Indigenous resistance as criminality, erasing the spiritual and territorial significance of Linconao’s role as a machi. The final section foregrounds the concepts of recognition, resistance, and re-existence as key decolonial responses developed by Indigenous communities facing extractive and colonial violence. It concludes that the case of Machi Linconao not only reveals the limits of international legal protections, such as ILO Convention 169, but also illuminates the epistemic and ontological foundations of Indigenous struggles for autonomy and Küme Mongen (good living).