The operation in Temucuicui
On November 14, 2018, Camilo Catrillanca was driving a tractor along a road in the Mapuche community of Temucuicui in Ercilla. A 15-year-old boy was riding with him. Police units were operating in the area after a report concerning stolen vehicles.
According to the findings later emphasized by Chile's National Human Rights Institute, Catrillanca was shot from behind and the teenager was also placed in lethal danger. The institute stated after the judgment that there had been no armed confrontation involving the two young people and that they were not armed.
The teenager and the investigation
The teenager survived and became an important witness. The proceedings also examined the force used against him after the shooting and the handling of evidence and statements by police personnel.
The criminal case ultimately extended beyond the officer who fired the fatal shot. Former officers and an institutional lawyer were convicted of obstruction or other offenses according to their individual conduct. The archive does not collapse those distinct convictions into one allegation of shared responsibility for the homicide.
The 2021 verdict and sentences
The Oral Criminal Court in Angol delivered its guilty verdict in January 2021. Carlos Roberto Alarcón Molina was convicted of the completed simple homicide of Camilo Catrillanca and the attempted simple homicide of the adolescent who accompanied him.
On January 28, 2021, Alarcón received 11 years of imprisonment for Catrillanca's homicide and five years and one day for the attempted homicide. The National Human Rights Institute summarized the aggregate punishment as 16 years of incarceration.
Raúl Ávila received separate effective terms for illegitimate coercion against the teenager, unjustified firing and obstruction of the investigation. Other former Carabineros personnel and a lawyer received penalties tied to obstruction and related conduct. Those outcomes are reported individually rather than being used to imply that every defendant was convicted of killing Catrillanca.
The Supreme Court makes the judgments final
Defendants sought to invalidate the trial through nullity appeals. On **May 5, 2021**, the Second Chamber of Chile's Supreme Court rejected those challenges and maintained the convictions issued in Angol.
Reporting on the ruling quoted the prosecutor explaining that the Supreme Court decision ended the investigation and trial stage and that no ordinary further appeal remained against the judgments. That finality is why Crime by Region classifies the case as solved / adjudicated.
Institutional significance
The case became a major human-rights and policing controversy in Chile. The INDH described the judgment as establishing criminal responsibility of state agents for Catrillanca's death, the attempted killing and abuse involving the teenager, and obstruction of the investigation.
Those findings do not make every institutional criticism a separate criminal conviction. This page therefore keeps two levels of accountability distinct: the specific crimes for which named defendants were convicted, and the broader public-policy questions concerning policing, evidence preservation and the relationship between the state and Mapuche communities.
Timeline
November 14, 2018: Camilo Catrillanca is shot while driving a tractor in Temucuicui; the teenager with him survives.
2018–2020: the investigation examines the shooting, treatment of the adolescent and efforts to obstruct or alter the account of events.
January 2021: the Angol court convicts Carlos Alarcón of completed and attempted homicide and convicts other defendants of obstruction and related offenses according to their roles.
January 28, 2021: Alarcón receives 11 years for Catrillanca's homicide and five years and one day for attempted homicide of the teenager.
May 5, 2021: Chile's Supreme Court rejects nullity appeals and leaves the convictions in force.
Current status
Carlos Alarcón's convictions and custodial sentences for the homicide of Camilo Catrillanca and attempted homicide of the adolescent were confirmed by Chile's Supreme Court in 2021. The other defendants' convictions for obstruction and related offenses likewise survived the nullity stage. The case is therefore classified as solved / adjudicated.