It is estimated that there are about two thousand shipwrecks on the coasts…
Illicit Trade, Ep. 03 - Vicuña
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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Vicu
Citation
Main credits
Breit Lira, Diego (film director)
Guzmán Storey, David (researcher)
Sanhueza Melendez, Paulina (film producer)
Other credits
Cinematography, Guillermo González; editor, Darío Órdenes; music, Wesley Slover.
Distributor subjects
Activism; Environment + Sustainability; Anthropology; Sociology; South America; Criminal Justice; Science + Technology; Geography; Latin American Studies; Economics + Social Class Issues; International RelationsKeywords
WEBVTT
00:00:41.017 --> 00:00:43.821
Vicunas have these big eyes,
00:00:43.821 --> 00:00:46.291
wet, puffed out faces,
00:00:46.291 --> 00:00:49.004
rounded skulls,
00:00:49.004 --> 00:00:52.658
and that makes you look at them and have
00:00:52.658 --> 00:00:54.509
and have this feeling of:
00:00:55.173 --> 00:00:57.073
\"What a cutie\".
00:01:02.089 --> 00:01:05.099
The vicuna fiber is the finest
animal fiber in the world,
00:01:05.099 --> 00:01:06.539
after the silkworm.
00:01:07.505 --> 00:01:11.785
You are not only dressing in the fiber,
you are also dressing with the species.
00:01:11.785 --> 00:01:14.060
You are wearing the fabric
00:01:14.060 --> 00:01:15.970
of a charismatic species.
00:01:17.975 --> 00:01:20.509
We have always found them dismembered,
00:01:20.509 --> 00:01:22.192
other times we find
00:01:22.192 --> 00:01:24.962
the remains of the animal\'s body
00:01:24.962 --> 00:01:27.200
so it can later be processed
00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:29.990
and have good economic profitability,
00:01:29.990 --> 00:01:31.780
in the illegal market.
00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:37.661
Up there... up there shit is wild.
00:01:37.661 --> 00:01:38.857
Up there, there is no law.
00:01:39.362 --> 00:01:41.500
Only the quickest survived.
00:01:42.139 --> 00:01:45.288
It\'s the far west.
Up there, only the bullets\' whistle.
00:02:12.920 --> 00:02:14.210
The vicuna has always,
00:02:14.210 --> 00:02:16.170
since it has a bond with humankind,
00:02:16.170 --> 00:02:18.110
been the fiber that dresses
00:02:18.110 --> 00:02:19.655
the powerful.
00:03:46.172 --> 00:03:47.600
On one time,
00:03:47.600 --> 00:03:49.490
we were doing a big inspection.
00:03:49.490 --> 00:03:51.739
We were resting for a while.
00:03:51.739 --> 00:03:53.123
When suddenly...
00:03:53.123 --> 00:03:56.193
five pickup trucks appear,
speeding fast up the road.
00:03:56.683 --> 00:03:58.543
They were avoiding the inspection.
00:03:58.543 --> 00:04:01.849
Everyone got into the pickup trucks
to go chase them.
00:04:02.423 --> 00:04:05.093
The first thing we got was a gunshot.
00:04:09.824 --> 00:04:12.343
We began to repel the attack.
00:04:21.050 --> 00:04:23.681
And when we started...
00:04:23.681 --> 00:04:24.850
... interrogating...
00:04:24.850 --> 00:04:26.860
the person we had under custody,
00:04:26.860 --> 00:04:28.770
I asked: \"Why did you cross the border?\".
00:04:28.770 --> 00:04:31.014
He said, \"we came
to get pickup trucks...
00:04:31.014 --> 00:04:32.754
\"... but we also need to take skin\".
00:04:32.754 --> 00:04:34.553
\"What skin?\"
\"Vicuna skin\", he said.
00:04:34.553 --> 00:04:36.603
\"Why are you taking the vicunas?\"
00:04:36.603 --> 00:04:38.913
\"Because we are selling them\".
00:04:39.601 --> 00:04:41.800
\"And why do you also
carry weapons?\"
00:04:41.800 --> 00:04:43.760
\"To face the police...
00:04:44.493 --> 00:04:46.433
... because we know this is illegal\".
00:04:54.564 --> 00:04:55.663
At the beginning,
00:04:55.663 --> 00:04:58.447
it was created but not enabled
00:04:58.447 --> 00:05:02.577
the Department of Illicit Behaviors
in Environment and Ecology.
00:05:02.577 --> 00:05:04.561
That\'s what it was called before.
00:05:04.561 --> 00:05:05.571
After that,
00:05:06.301 --> 00:05:07.743
at the end of 2000,
00:05:08.096 --> 00:05:10.196
the general director of that time
00:05:10.666 --> 00:05:13.229
comes up with the name BIDEMA,
00:05:13.811 --> 00:05:15.631
they name me chief
00:05:15.631 --> 00:05:18.091
and that\'s when we begin the whole
00:05:18.446 --> 00:05:21.281
environmental-operation, so to speak
00:05:21.651 --> 00:05:24.881
investigating, just like you would work
on any other felony,
00:05:24.881 --> 00:05:26.861
homicide, drug trafficking...
00:05:26.861 --> 00:05:29.063
Everyone looked at us weird.
00:05:33.284 --> 00:05:35.314
I realized that
00:05:35.314 --> 00:05:36.673
I had to
00:05:36.673 --> 00:05:40.314
gather a team that would investigate
the vicuna: Why were they hunting it?
00:05:40.989 --> 00:05:42.661
And I also realize
00:05:42.661 --> 00:05:47.011
that, in this broad piece
of land in the highlands,
00:05:47.011 --> 00:05:49.558
how to know when they come in
00:05:49.558 --> 00:05:52.158
how to know when they start hunting,
00:05:52.158 --> 00:05:53.648
and how to know
00:05:53.648 --> 00:05:55.501
when they are going out with the skins.
00:05:57.745 --> 00:06:01.315
You stand in the desert.
You don\'t see anything anywhere around.
00:06:01.315 --> 00:06:03.267
There is nothing.
00:06:03.267 --> 00:06:05.960
You look that way: rocks.
You look the other way: rocks.
00:06:06.616 --> 00:06:11.018
So I said: \"Well, boys. We do the same
here as any other crime,
00:06:11.018 --> 00:06:13.431
we have to make
the desert talks to us\".
00:06:14.638 --> 00:06:16.603
\"Feel the smells...
00:06:16.603 --> 00:06:19.113
Feel how the desert talks...
00:06:19.113 --> 00:06:21.008
Look at the tracks they leave.
00:06:21.008 --> 00:06:23.508
Why are the footprints of these animals
00:06:23.508 --> 00:06:26.281
buried in the ground.
00:06:26.281 --> 00:06:29.618
Why is the stone where they went by,
cracked this way:
00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:31.709
Did they escape?
00:06:32.186 --> 00:06:33.896
Were they being hunted?
00:06:34.274 --> 00:06:36.154
Are there tire tracks?
00:06:36.154 --> 00:06:39.223
Were they running from left to right,
or from right to left?
00:06:39.764 --> 00:06:42.013
Did they go around the hill?
00:06:42.013 --> 00:06:44.287
Feel how the desert
will start to talk to you\".
00:06:44.287 --> 00:06:47.929
All of that information
that is being raised,
00:06:47.929 --> 00:06:51.109
will tell you what type
of poacher comes here.
00:06:55.355 --> 00:06:59.351
We have to understand that the vicuna has
a very expensive fiber,
00:06:59.351 --> 00:07:01.413
for the international market.
00:07:01.913 --> 00:07:06.040
And the limits of the Parinacota
province are very extended
00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:09.580
and has a large number of vicunas.
00:07:11.643 --> 00:07:17.273
Therefore it is attractive for poachers,
whether they are Chilean, Peruvian or Bolivian.
00:07:37.494 --> 00:07:40.517
The vicuna has no homogeneous
distribution in the territory.
00:07:40.517 --> 00:07:45.617
It\'s not like they are all one meter
away from each other, no.
00:07:46.367 --> 00:07:51.512
They concentrate depending on the food
and water supply.
00:07:57.287 --> 00:08:00.840
At night they go to higher places
to sleep.
00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:04.957
And during the day they descend
to the feeding spots.
00:08:04.957 --> 00:08:06.688
So, that route
00:08:07.139 --> 00:08:08.983
they already know it.
00:08:27.489 --> 00:08:30.440
And so what the poachers did
was to stay the night
00:08:31.405 --> 00:08:32.645
and wait until dawn
00:08:33.448 --> 00:08:34.668
and...
00:08:34.668 --> 00:08:36.527
... they shot them.
00:09:00.611 --> 00:09:02.795
They would normally shoot the male first,
00:09:02.795 --> 00:09:04.791
who is the one to lead the group.
00:09:04.791 --> 00:09:07.429
Therefore they beheaded
the chance...
00:09:07.429 --> 00:09:09.659
... these animals had to escape.
00:09:10.199 --> 00:09:14.844
And in this mess, they shoot every
other member of the group.
00:09:17.059 --> 00:09:19.689
The killing shifted to
00:09:19.689 --> 00:09:23.089
a skinning process made very
violently and very fast.
00:09:23.089 --> 00:09:26.099
One, two, three, four, five... even
00:09:26.099 --> 00:09:27.789
twenty vicunas
00:09:27.789 --> 00:09:29.509
dead, skinned.
00:09:29.509 --> 00:09:31.519
It didn\'t matter if they were offspring,
00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:33.739
male, female,
pregnant, not pregnant...
00:09:33.739 --> 00:09:35.290
...it made no difference.
00:09:57.436 --> 00:10:01.389
I think the poacher
does a horrible thing,
00:10:01.389 --> 00:10:04.428
because he kills an animal to take
its skin, even though
00:10:04.428 --> 00:10:06.914
you don\'t need to kill the animal
to use its fur.
00:10:08.318 --> 00:10:10.496
Like every corrupt entity,
00:10:10.496 --> 00:10:14.460
it\'s taking the wrong path.
00:10:17.247 --> 00:10:18.734
With the vicuna fiber,
00:10:18.734 --> 00:10:19.767
you can make
00:10:19.767 --> 00:10:21.197
coats,
00:10:21.197 --> 00:10:22.517
jackets,
00:10:22.517 --> 00:10:24.161
you can make stoles,
00:10:24.161 --> 00:10:25.237
scarfs.
00:10:25.237 --> 00:10:30.169
I mean, the fiber allows you to make
stitched fibers or flat knitted fibers.
00:10:30.169 --> 00:10:32.121
A poncho, a cape...
00:10:34.637 --> 00:10:38.234
This fiber is very thin and, therefore,
00:10:38.234 --> 00:10:42.356
it keeps you very warm,
but it\'s very light.
00:10:42.356 --> 00:10:44.459
It practically doesn\'t weigh at all.
00:10:44.459 --> 00:10:51.129
And this is the main reason for
its quality and fineness to the fabric.
00:11:03.508 --> 00:11:06.532
In the case of the vicuna, since
the Inca Empire, and even before,
00:11:06.532 --> 00:11:09.965
they understood that the vicuna has
a very important feature:
00:11:09.965 --> 00:11:12.905
When kept in captivity
they cannot reproduce.
00:11:12.905 --> 00:11:15.993
Therefore, they had to live
in the wild pampas
00:11:15.993 --> 00:11:18.778
that are four thousand meters high,
or more, and there
00:11:18.778 --> 00:11:22.478
where the indigenous communities
that looked after them and kept them.
00:11:27.734 --> 00:11:33.479
In this morning, Monday 16th,
all of us here, are going to make a
00:11:33.479 --> 00:11:37.964
plea of license and authorization to
proceed to make a film recording,
00:11:37.964 --> 00:11:40.824
with Glaciar Films.
00:11:41.405 --> 00:11:43.557
Tata Willka or Tata Inti,
00:11:43.557 --> 00:11:47.037
we ask for the authorization
00:11:47.037 --> 00:11:50.947
and the license to begin
these film recordings.
00:11:50.947 --> 00:11:55.627
Protective hills,
the gods that are present,
00:11:55.627 --> 00:11:59.854
we thank you for the license
to continue this work.
00:11:59.854 --> 00:12:00.934
Yuspagarpa,
00:12:00.934 --> 00:12:02.434
¡jallalla!
00:12:04.769 --> 00:12:08.246
The vicuna is Wari,
00:12:08.246 --> 00:12:10.364
that\'s the Aymara name.
00:12:10.364 --> 00:12:12.309
The vicuna is an emblem,
00:12:12.309 --> 00:12:15.730
as important as the condor
and the cougar.
00:12:16.529 --> 00:12:18.718
The indigenous communities
00:12:18.718 --> 00:12:20.998
of the Aymara and the Quechua people,
00:12:20.998 --> 00:12:23.128
the original authorities dressed:
00:12:23.128 --> 00:12:27.901
with the vicuna scarf, vicuna poncho,
the women wore vicuna blankets.
00:12:27.901 --> 00:12:32.386
They are part of the experience and
the culture of the Aymara people.
00:12:37.788 --> 00:12:40.624
There is a whole ritual
involving vicunas.
00:12:40.624 --> 00:12:43.719
The vicuna is the sacred animal
for the Incas.
00:12:45.014 --> 00:12:48.406
During the ceremonies
the Inca King would dress...
00:12:48.406 --> 00:12:50.058
... with the fur of the vicuna.
00:12:50.650 --> 00:12:53.420
He would wear it like a blanket,
as a trophy.
00:12:57.426 --> 00:13:01.926
The vicuna lives over the 4.500 meters
high, that\'s its habitat.
00:13:01.926 --> 00:13:03.696
In the mountain.
00:13:05.320 --> 00:13:07.940
The spirits live in the mountain.
00:13:11.036 --> 00:13:13.517
Our fathers, our grandfathers,
when they pass away,
00:13:13.517 --> 00:13:15.047
they physically disappear,
00:13:15.577 --> 00:13:20.286
but their spirit lives in the mountains,
from where they look at us.
00:13:21.095 --> 00:13:24.127
And who lives at that same hight?
The vicuna.
00:13:44.418 --> 00:13:48.196
The South-American camelids,
are physiological wonders.
00:13:48.196 --> 00:13:51.134
They are animals that have
an enormous resistance
00:13:51.134 --> 00:13:53.619
and are very efficient
in their use of resources.
00:13:54.225 --> 00:13:57.330
And the vicuna in particular
it\'s a species that...
00:13:57.330 --> 00:14:01.590
... perfectly endures very low
temperatures and very unfavorable
00:14:01.590 --> 00:14:02.916
climate conditions,
00:14:02.916 --> 00:14:06.436
and a food supply
which is very crude and scarce,
00:14:06.436 --> 00:14:09.888
that gives very low energy,
anyhow they live and reproduce perfectly.
00:14:09.888 --> 00:14:13.844
They are one of those species
that live in extreme conditions.
00:14:19.824 --> 00:14:23.311
An animal is able to run at about
at 50 kilometers per hour
00:14:24.010 --> 00:14:27.091
at 4.000 or 5.000 meters above sea level,
00:14:27.091 --> 00:14:28.741
In my opinion, it\'s remarkable.
00:14:28.741 --> 00:14:30.732
And I have seen vicunas running,
00:14:31.785 --> 00:14:32.785
like a gazelle,
00:14:33.765 --> 00:14:34.765
above
00:14:35.370 --> 00:14:37.211
4.500 meters above sea level
00:14:37.657 --> 00:14:39.791
with no trouble doing so.
00:14:54.485 --> 00:14:59.361
If you go to a 4.500 meters high
location you realize
00:14:59.361 --> 00:15:01.592
that you are actually not designed
to be able to survive there.
00:15:03.148 --> 00:15:04.903
And as much as you make an effort,
00:15:05.465 --> 00:15:09.233
your physical performance is precarious.
00:15:09.233 --> 00:15:10.403
It\'s very precarious.
00:15:16.693 --> 00:15:18.707
Where I have felt the coldest
00:15:18.707 --> 00:15:19.814
in my life
00:15:19.814 --> 00:15:21.253
is in the highlands.
00:15:21.253 --> 00:15:23.303
You\'re there during the day and say: \"Well,
00:15:23.303 --> 00:15:25.743
the night will come and
00:15:25.743 --> 00:15:26.973
it\'ll never be that bad\".
00:15:26.973 --> 00:15:29.398
But it can get to 30 degrees below 0.
00:15:36.227 --> 00:15:39.506
The people that live up there, do so
because they really know the territory,
00:15:39.506 --> 00:15:40.899
otherwise, you won\'t endure.
00:15:42.026 --> 00:15:43.296
You don\'t survive.
00:15:44.486 --> 00:15:46.816
Someone who lives in the highlands
in this moment,
00:15:46.816 --> 00:15:49.636
is a person who knows
practically all of the territory.
00:15:51.866 --> 00:15:53.694
That requires experience.
00:15:54.395 --> 00:15:55.642
It\'s nights,
00:15:55.642 --> 00:15:56.762
it\'s freezing mornings
00:15:57.980 --> 00:15:59.779
and to get that, you have to be there.
00:16:22.199 --> 00:16:24.101
The animals are everything,
00:16:24.101 --> 00:16:25.832
for an Aymara family.
00:16:27.557 --> 00:16:29.114
Your livestock are your meat.
00:16:29.937 --> 00:16:31.584
Your livestock are your milk.
00:16:33.828 --> 00:16:35.447
Your livestock are your clothes.
00:16:36.377 --> 00:16:38.617
Your livestock are your footwear,
your leather.
00:16:38.617 --> 00:16:41.426
It\'s the animal for the ceremonies,
to celebrate the rituals,
00:16:41.426 --> 00:16:44.336
the ceremonies for Mother Earth,
the Pachamama.
00:16:45.026 --> 00:16:49.359
And for millennia it has been the economic
foundation for the highlands\' economy.
00:17:31.003 --> 00:17:35.118
When they killed the first policemen,
because there were two episodes,
00:17:35.118 --> 00:17:38.947
in the second one, I had retired,
and in the first one,
00:17:38.947 --> 00:17:41.455
they shot the police officer on the head,
00:17:41.455 --> 00:17:42.840
and the officer laid dead
00:17:42.840 --> 00:17:44.407
on top of his horse.
00:17:44.407 --> 00:17:46.603
And the horse turned
to the left,
00:17:46.603 --> 00:17:49.051
and then they shot another
17 times to his body.
00:17:53.274 --> 00:17:54.606
We said:
00:17:54.606 --> 00:17:57.428
\"This is not about just going up there
to the highlands...
00:17:57.428 --> 00:18:00.068
... looking for people
that go around hunting vicunas\".
00:18:27.144 --> 00:18:29.282
The hunters, in general,
00:18:29.282 --> 00:18:32.432
work during the night, they use the moon,
00:18:32.432 --> 00:18:35.100
so they can see better
00:18:35.100 --> 00:18:37.560
and they try not to be seen at all.
00:18:39.528 --> 00:18:41.337
That\'s the Tacora volcano.
00:18:42.176 --> 00:18:43.837
We are getting closer
00:18:44.887 --> 00:18:46.916
to a place where
00:18:46.916 --> 00:18:49.745
we once found 12 dead vicunas,
00:18:49.745 --> 00:18:51.115
skinned.
00:18:55.348 --> 00:18:59.387
They were spread, I would say in a
50 or 70 meters radius.
00:18:59.712 --> 00:19:01.252
It was during the night,
00:19:01.252 --> 00:19:02.422
there were a few of us...
00:19:03.412 --> 00:19:06.392
And the climate conditions,
which is the hardest thing.
00:19:36.312 --> 00:19:42.268
Our lab got involved because I made an
invitation to law enforcement entities in Chile
00:19:42.268 --> 00:19:43.951
to come to our lab
00:19:43.951 --> 00:19:48.015
and learn how to process
a wildlife crime scene.
00:19:51.208 --> 00:19:57.819
This is a law enforcement lab focused specifically
on criminal violations or criminal cases,
00:20:00.449 --> 00:20:05.644
Dedicated solely to looking
at illegal wildlife trade.
00:20:06.812 --> 00:20:12.453
And its kind of a difficult expertise because
there is roughly 4.500 mammals in the world.
00:20:12.453 --> 00:20:14.810
There is about 9 thousand birds,
00:20:14.810 --> 00:20:17.509
there is about 12 thousand herps,
00:20:18.159 --> 00:20:20.545
and there is about 60 thousand trees,
00:20:20.545 --> 00:20:25.338
so identifying the evidence for
non-human cases its a bit of a challenge.
00:20:33.504 --> 00:20:35.256
This specimen...
00:20:35.256 --> 00:20:38.161
... was obtained at the airport of Chicago.
00:20:38.700 --> 00:20:41.160
The person that had it with him,
00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:43.237
simply bought it in Poland.
00:20:43.734 --> 00:20:46.491
How does a condor feather...
00:20:47.461 --> 00:20:50.866
... get to Poland?
It\'s hard to understand.
00:20:50.866 --> 00:20:52.436
But this, also,
00:20:52.436 --> 00:20:54.016
proves a condor\'s death
00:20:54.016 --> 00:20:56.884
for a very trivial and simple
00:20:56.884 --> 00:20:58.316
reason.
00:21:03.638 --> 00:21:08.150
When one first arrives to a wildlife
crime scene the question is:
00:21:08.150 --> 00:21:11.746
Is it a crime or is it
a natural mortality of the animal?
00:21:11.746 --> 00:21:14.773
When one doesn\'t know
how to answer those questions,
00:21:15.394 --> 00:21:18.235
what you tend to do is just
throw your hands up in the air
00:21:18.235 --> 00:21:19.794
and say: \"I don\'t know\".
00:21:19.794 --> 00:21:23.775
\"Obviously this animal died several days ago.
There is nothing here I can do about it\".
00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:27.764
But there is.
00:21:34.065 --> 00:21:37.711
Sadly, the place where
these events take place,
00:21:37.711 --> 00:21:40.024
as you can see, is very wide.
00:21:40.024 --> 00:21:43.162
It makes it really difficult for us
to get more information.
00:21:43.162 --> 00:21:46.888
For example, if it was a crime in the city
where there may be security cameras,
00:21:46.888 --> 00:21:47.903
witnesses,
00:21:48.788 --> 00:21:50.998
or the place itself delivers more evidence,
00:21:50.998 --> 00:21:54.685
here the location sometimes delivers us
very little evidence.
00:22:02.419 --> 00:22:05.579
This is generally what\'s...
00:22:06.455 --> 00:22:08.099
... what\'s left.
00:22:08.099 --> 00:22:10.148
From the front limbs,
00:22:10.812 --> 00:22:13.636
they take out all the skin.
00:22:14.848 --> 00:22:16.323
And this is what\'s left:
00:22:16.323 --> 00:22:17.893
what they couldn\'t take off.
00:22:21.648 --> 00:22:25.518
It\'s like an indicator that this
vicuna was hunted
00:22:25.518 --> 00:22:27.417
it didn\'t die from an illness,
00:22:27.417 --> 00:22:28.569
it wasn\'t run-over.
00:22:29.739 --> 00:22:31.179
It was a victim of...
00:22:31.179 --> 00:22:32.913
... poaching.
00:22:36.139 --> 00:22:39.843
If one was able to take the clothing
00:22:40.442 --> 00:22:42.005
or the knife
00:22:42.005 --> 00:22:46.784
or the objects they used for skinning
the animal, and collected its DNA
00:22:47.365 --> 00:22:49.965
and compare against the animals
found in the crime scene,
00:22:50.574 --> 00:22:53.280
then you can make
that one to one connection.
00:22:58.296 --> 00:23:00.847
It\'s likely that they are
recurrent hunters.
00:23:01.513 --> 00:23:04.333
The way they make the cuts is
also well known by now,
00:23:04.333 --> 00:23:06.733
the person who did it
00:23:06.733 --> 00:23:10.382
holds knowledge in this sort of felony
00:23:10.382 --> 00:23:13.548
or illegal trafficking he does
for whoever requests for it.
00:23:14.046 --> 00:23:17.482
So there is an interaction between
the victim and the suspect,
00:23:17.482 --> 00:23:19.378
and the crime scene proper.
00:23:20.416 --> 00:23:22.932
And collecting the evidence
at the crime scene,
00:23:22.932 --> 00:23:25.866
is your only one chance opportunity
00:23:25.866 --> 00:23:27.652
to figure out what happened,
00:23:27.652 --> 00:23:29.398
to solve the crime.
00:23:34.061 --> 00:23:35.508
I imagine
00:23:35.508 --> 00:23:38.650
that the suspects,
doing the vicuña killing,
00:23:39.708 --> 00:23:43.463
have to be covered in blood
from the vicuña.
00:23:45.384 --> 00:23:48.174
So, all of that evidence, if it\'s collected
00:23:48.174 --> 00:23:50.246
and preserved properly,
00:23:50.246 --> 00:23:51.246
can link
00:23:52.052 --> 00:23:53.052
the suspect
00:23:53.750 --> 00:23:55.448
to not only the crime scene,
00:23:55.448 --> 00:23:56.898
but to the victim.
00:23:58.915 --> 00:24:02.257
What hunters do, obviously,
is to skip through the whole process
00:24:02.942 --> 00:24:04.770
of handling the vicuna.
00:24:05.892 --> 00:24:08.072
For whatever reason.
00:24:08.072 --> 00:24:09.948
Then, they sell it.
00:24:09.948 --> 00:24:12.858
It has to be sold to people who
are willing to buy
00:24:12.858 --> 00:24:15.650
and skip through all the procedures,
all the processes.
00:24:15.650 --> 00:24:19.546
Is there an informal market? Of course
there is an informal market for it.
00:24:23.131 --> 00:24:27.607
At one point we captured an illegal
hunter and we saw the tools they carried
00:24:27.607 --> 00:24:29.727
and they were really rudimentary.
00:24:29.727 --> 00:24:31.662
The truth is that it\'s a lifestyle
00:24:31.662 --> 00:24:34.082
that demonstrates the...
00:24:34.082 --> 00:24:38.703
... the scarcity of many
people who live in the highlands.
00:24:39.023 --> 00:24:42.837
During the wintertime it\'s
minus 25 degrees, so...
00:24:42.837 --> 00:24:45.399
they are used to it.
they walk around in sandals.
00:24:45.962 --> 00:24:49.027
The tracks I followed were sandals tracks.
00:25:13.648 --> 00:25:16.192
The communities protect the vicunas,
00:25:16.192 --> 00:25:17.013
but
00:25:17.013 --> 00:25:19.228
people from other places come
00:25:19.228 --> 00:25:22.378
and they even cross the border
from one country to another.
00:25:22.378 --> 00:25:24.608
And, in the last ten years,
00:25:24.608 --> 00:25:27.244
we have seen that they kill them
00:25:27.244 --> 00:25:28.668
and they take their leather.
00:25:28.668 --> 00:25:30.514
Although people don\'t believe it,
00:25:30.514 --> 00:25:33.037
the vicuna is a very important animal
00:25:33.037 --> 00:25:36.268
within the knowledge and the culture
00:25:36.268 --> 00:25:38.888
of the animal wildlife on the planet.
00:25:38.888 --> 00:25:41.570
Because of its beauty, its prominent eyes,
00:25:41.570 --> 00:25:43.753
its rare colouring,
00:25:43.753 --> 00:25:46.373
and for the unique
places it lives in,
00:25:46.373 --> 00:25:50.613
the vicuna, as a species, has an iconic
place in this part of the world,
00:25:50.613 --> 00:25:51.827
and moreover
00:25:51.827 --> 00:25:54.453
it was considered by ancestral cultures as
00:25:54.453 --> 00:25:56.623
the Queen of the Andes.
00:26:00.174 --> 00:26:03.904
During the Inca empire,
a big festivity was held,
00:26:03.904 --> 00:26:05.754
which was called the Chaku
00:26:05.754 --> 00:26:09.338
where hundreds of people came down
to the hills at dawn,
00:26:09.338 --> 00:26:11.509
herding the vicunas,
00:26:11.509 --> 00:26:13.539
towards these big stone yards,
00:26:13.539 --> 00:26:17.511
where they were sheared
and some were sacrificed.
00:26:17.511 --> 00:26:20.506
They were probably more than seven
million vicunas, if not more,
00:26:20.506 --> 00:26:24.852
at the time when Incas lived
all over the highlands.
00:26:40.779 --> 00:26:43.829
For the Incas, the dresses
are very important.
00:26:43.829 --> 00:26:47.293
The people used a lot of camelid fibers,
00:26:47.293 --> 00:26:51.403
but they used different kind
of camelid fibers:
00:26:51.403 --> 00:26:53.417
Llamas, alpacas
00:26:53.417 --> 00:26:55.193
and also vicuñas.
00:26:57.043 --> 00:26:59.910
The vicuña wool is very different
from the alpacas.
00:27:00.321 --> 00:27:01.748
Is so thin that,
00:27:01.748 --> 00:27:03.218
at first sight,
00:27:03.218 --> 00:27:05.218
we are not sure if it\'s painted
00:27:05.218 --> 00:27:06.638
or if it\'s waved.
00:27:09.065 --> 00:27:12.835
If you look at an alpaca or llamas,
they have long hairs,
00:27:12.835 --> 00:27:14.035
quite long,
00:27:14.035 --> 00:27:18.625
but the vicuña is very short,
so it\'s difficult to make the threads.
00:27:18.625 --> 00:27:21.389
So you need specialists to do that.
00:27:22.371 --> 00:27:25.938
It\'s also a reason why we know that it is
00:27:26.468 --> 00:27:28.705
dedicated only for the emperor.
00:27:31.575 --> 00:27:36.399
Most of the Pre-Columbian people
00:27:36.399 --> 00:27:38.826
are working on a duality.
00:27:40.256 --> 00:27:42.300
There are always two things:
00:27:42.300 --> 00:27:43.830
there is sun and moon,
00:27:43.830 --> 00:27:45.280
days and night,
00:27:45.280 --> 00:27:46.280
woman and man...
00:27:46.280 --> 00:27:49.108
And for them, the weaving is
00:27:49.108 --> 00:27:52.058
just putting vertical
and horizontal lines,
00:27:52.058 --> 00:27:55.053
and so its a combination
of those two lines.
00:27:56.168 --> 00:27:59.070
So when you are creating a textile,
00:27:59.070 --> 00:28:01.950
you are participating to the creation
00:28:01.950 --> 00:28:05.504
of this duality and the
combination of this duality.
00:28:05.504 --> 00:28:08.445
So there is a philosophical reason
and a practical reason
00:28:08.445 --> 00:28:10.621
why the textile are so important.
00:28:10.621 --> 00:28:11.898
And we know that,
00:28:11.898 --> 00:28:16.218
if you want to make a very nice
sacrifice for the gods,
00:28:16.218 --> 00:28:19.061
the most valuable things you can do
00:28:19.061 --> 00:28:21.041
is to create a textile and then,
00:28:21.041 --> 00:28:22.171
offer it to the gods,
00:28:22.171 --> 00:28:24.079
and burn it.
00:28:36.598 --> 00:28:40.553
Once the Inca empire falls, the
Chaku disappears as a phenomenon
00:28:40.553 --> 00:28:42.991
and it probably transcended but
00:28:42.991 --> 00:28:45.126
in less significant form.
00:28:47.593 --> 00:28:53.230
The Spanish empire brings the use of
firearms in Latin America; therefore,
00:28:55.090 --> 00:28:58.791
hunting vicunas becomes an
alternative to the Chaku.
00:29:04.466 --> 00:29:09.533
And the garments, capes, hats
and other clothing items,
00:29:09.533 --> 00:29:12.447
of the royalty in France, Great Britain,
00:29:12.447 --> 00:29:14.413
had vicuna fiber in them.
00:29:14.413 --> 00:29:17.616
That fiber had been the cause
00:29:17.616 --> 00:29:19.876
of fierce hunting
00:29:19.876 --> 00:29:23.376
in all of the highlands of Peru, Bolivia,
Chile and Argentina,
00:29:23.376 --> 00:29:24.806
for centuries.
00:29:24.806 --> 00:29:26.337
I believe that during the \'70s,
00:29:26.337 --> 00:29:30.176
the vicuna population was
an endangered species, that\'s right,
00:29:30.176 --> 00:29:31.426
just as...
00:29:31.426 --> 00:29:33.925
... just as the worst situation of...
00:29:33.925 --> 00:29:37.787
... of the charismatic species
that inhabit the African steppe.
00:29:42.560 --> 00:29:44.465
Vicunas were almost nowhere to be seen.
00:29:44.779 --> 00:29:48.411
You just saw the dust from when they fled.
00:29:48.411 --> 00:29:51.977
They stayed far away from
the human population.
00:29:56.806 --> 00:29:58.980
Until it got to a critical point,
00:29:58.980 --> 00:30:02.780
and Chile started protecting
around 500 vicunas
00:30:02.780 --> 00:30:04.844
that still survived in the highlands,
00:30:04.844 --> 00:30:07.803
on what was next to be
Lauca National Park.
00:30:12.627 --> 00:30:17.373
When the CITES convention began, it started
as a reaction from the countries that
00:30:17.373 --> 00:30:21.075
had trouble because of
the illegal trafficking in their borders,
00:30:21.075 --> 00:30:23.993
with species that were
being preserved,
00:30:23.993 --> 00:30:25.268
during the \'70s.
00:30:25.268 --> 00:30:29.256
It\'s especially done for the Asian
and African animals, where
00:30:29.256 --> 00:30:32.186
there was a lot of trophy hunting.
00:30:32.186 --> 00:30:37.377
They took advantage of this
situation, and the vicuna was included
00:30:37.377 --> 00:30:40.395
on the endangered species.
00:30:40.827 --> 00:30:46.866
Police patrols were implemented to
several areas of the vicuna habitat.
00:31:00.840 --> 00:31:03.080
People from the surroundings got hired,
00:31:03.080 --> 00:31:05.417
as forest rangers, so
00:31:05.417 --> 00:31:07.467
the community was involved
00:31:07.467 --> 00:31:11.467
and then CONAF started to take action,
00:31:11.467 --> 00:31:15.154
and make scientific investigations,
because they didn\'t know much...
00:31:15.154 --> 00:31:17.234
... about the species...
00:31:17.234 --> 00:31:18.234
... at all.
00:31:22.949 --> 00:31:25.458
The population increase
00:31:25.458 --> 00:31:27.729
was exponential,
00:31:27.729 --> 00:31:29.219
until the year 1990.
00:31:29.219 --> 00:31:32.794
The census that year estimated
around 20 thousand individuals.
00:31:36.556 --> 00:31:37.556
It started to grow.
00:31:37.556 --> 00:31:40.034
The vicunas started to be seen
00:31:40.034 --> 00:31:42.123
closer to the towns.
00:31:42.123 --> 00:31:44.738
They even started to
00:31:44.738 --> 00:31:46.743
coexist with the domestic population,
00:31:46.743 --> 00:31:49.391
the llamas and the alpacas.
00:31:57.160 --> 00:31:59.613
Dead vicunas...
Two of them.
00:32:09.703 --> 00:32:11.773
We have a resource here
00:32:11.773 --> 00:32:13.413
that is not being used:
00:32:13.413 --> 00:32:15.203
the vicuna fiber.
00:32:15.203 --> 00:32:16.773
Now,
00:32:16.773 --> 00:32:20.686
if the vicuna gives resources
to the people of the highlands,
00:32:20.686 --> 00:32:24.000
these people will want to protect
00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:27.450
this resource.
00:32:27.450 --> 00:32:29.666
The issue is: how to actually do it.
00:32:30.176 --> 00:32:33.200
We didn\'t know if they would die when
we sheared them.
00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:34.576
We didn\'t know anything.
00:32:34.576 --> 00:32:36.399
So,
00:32:36.399 --> 00:32:40.526
a good measure was thinking that from this
00:32:40.526 --> 00:32:43.626
we had to make a pilot project,
00:32:44.276 --> 00:32:47.458
to make a first shearing experience
00:32:47.458 --> 00:32:51.684
that could be monitored and
supervised by investigators,
00:32:51.684 --> 00:32:54.373
who had participation from the people
00:32:54.373 --> 00:32:58.024
and that produced the first
kilogram of vicuna fiber.
00:33:01.256 --> 00:33:04.830
First of all, when we herd the vicunas
we need at least...
00:33:04.830 --> 00:33:06.647
... at least 20 people.
00:33:07.308 --> 00:33:11.088
We invited the neighbors,
our family from Arica
00:33:11.088 --> 00:33:14.943
who don\'t suffer from altitude sickness.
So we gathered them,
00:33:14.943 --> 00:33:16.683
and that created a sense of union.
00:33:17.738 --> 00:33:20.354
We were innovating, something new.
00:33:20.354 --> 00:33:23.894
We had never done
vicuna handling before.
00:33:23.894 --> 00:33:26.940
Therefore, our enthusiasm was huge.
00:33:30.182 --> 00:33:31.943
I started designing
00:33:31.943 --> 00:33:34.403
a tunnel capturing system
00:33:34.403 --> 00:33:37.302
that had protection against any impacts.
00:33:37.302 --> 00:33:42.292
I focused on the visual isolation factor.
00:33:42.292 --> 00:33:44.537
A hood, that ended up being very useful,
00:33:44.537 --> 00:33:48.564
because of the heart rate of the
individuals wearing a hood,
00:33:48.564 --> 00:33:52.264
decreased evidently, once you
were able to cover its eyes.
00:34:06.696 --> 00:34:11.803
And finally, after the release,
the animals who had been sheared
00:34:11.803 --> 00:34:14.918
managed to recover and stabilize
their temperature,
00:34:14.918 --> 00:34:18.505
and face their fiber generation process.
00:34:20.337 --> 00:34:23.746
That\'s why it was such an interesting
model internationally,
00:34:23.746 --> 00:34:27.656
because it was an example of how to
save a species from extinction,
00:34:27.656 --> 00:34:32.023
using the species sustainably
without the need to hunt it.
00:34:35.881 --> 00:34:37.574
We were able to develop
00:34:37.574 --> 00:34:40.431
nine vicuna breeders.
00:34:40.431 --> 00:34:46.987
And we had two areas where we
captured vicunas who lived in the wild.
00:34:48.652 --> 00:34:54.525
I was able to have 120 vicunas,
on a 60-hectare space,
00:34:54.525 --> 00:34:57.621
because vicuna proliferation
is very quick.
00:34:58.545 --> 00:35:01.459
The Surire community recovered its town,
00:35:01.459 --> 00:35:04.859
and so the Chaku not only became
a productive practice,
00:35:04.859 --> 00:35:08.374
but it also became a practice for renewing
00:35:08.374 --> 00:35:12.412
family bonds, renewing cultural bonds,
00:35:12.412 --> 00:35:15.712
and finally,
for recovering de Aymara culture.
00:35:20.582 --> 00:35:24.386
The United Nations, in 2005,
00:35:24.386 --> 00:35:29.683
acknowledged the Vicuna Project to be one of
the ten most relevant projects
00:35:29.683 --> 00:35:33.423
to the comprehension and the understanding
of sustainability in Latin America.
00:35:35.107 --> 00:35:37.177
Made here in Chile.
00:35:49.171 --> 00:35:54.091
For seven years I was around llamas and
alpacas, where I made the vicuna handlings.
00:35:54.091 --> 00:35:56.471
I became close to them.
00:35:56.471 --> 00:35:59.361
But I saw I was all alone,
I had to do everything:
00:35:59.361 --> 00:36:02.891
cook for the dog, for myself,
do the herding, get to Arica... everything.
00:36:02.891 --> 00:36:05.005
It\'s too much, it upsets you.
00:36:05.005 --> 00:36:06.621
It\'s a pity, I\'m sorry about it.
00:36:06.621 --> 00:36:09.020
I feel guilty in a way, I feel as if...
00:36:09.020 --> 00:36:10.227
... I\'m in debt,
00:36:10.227 --> 00:36:14.651
like I abandoned something
that was mine: the experience.
00:36:17.965 --> 00:36:19.441
It\'s very difficult
00:36:20.285 --> 00:36:21.720
to actually do
00:36:22.510 --> 00:36:23.875
these captures,
00:36:23.875 --> 00:36:25.471
make the shearing,
00:36:25.471 --> 00:36:29.509
if you don\'t have people, if you don\'t have
an organized community.
00:36:29.989 --> 00:36:31.640
And we don\'t have that,
00:36:31.640 --> 00:36:32.930
nowadays.
00:36:32.930 --> 00:36:36.353
The conditions aren\'t there. Why?
Because the people from the highlands
00:36:36.353 --> 00:36:38.591
come down to the cities
because they don\'t have
00:36:38.591 --> 00:36:41.309
the basic conditions
to survive in the highland.
00:36:46.708 --> 00:36:49.533
This fence is
00:36:49.533 --> 00:36:54.648
six kilometers and 500 meters
long, approximately.
00:36:54.648 --> 00:36:58.937
To go around the whole captivity area
it\'s about four or five kilometers,
00:36:58.937 --> 00:37:03.110
because you have to count the pastures,
how many males, how many females,
00:37:03.110 --> 00:37:05.701
how many offsprings,
and then you have to put it...
00:37:06.701 --> 00:37:08.108
... on the record.
00:37:08.108 --> 00:37:10.761
So, I walked several kilometers
00:37:10.761 --> 00:37:14.291
and afterward, I also had to
pick up my domestic animals.
00:37:14.291 --> 00:37:18.291
In total, on one day I would walk
something like 15 kilometers.
00:37:18.291 --> 00:37:22.681
In the year 2017, I remember the census,
00:37:22.681 --> 00:37:24.331
160,
00:37:25.151 --> 00:37:27.114
but they gave 98 to me.
00:37:29.417 --> 00:37:31.395
Now there is none.
00:37:31.395 --> 00:37:35.014
It says here six
and four offsprings, the last one.
00:37:36.274 --> 00:37:38.743
That was in the year 2017.
00:37:39.274 --> 00:37:40.765
Until last year,
00:37:41.459 --> 00:37:45.224
there were around 12 vicunas left, and
that number kept getting lower and lower.
00:37:45.224 --> 00:37:49.674
Here I have the closing book,
we closed it along with the CONAF
00:37:49.674 --> 00:37:51.770
and we signed it and that was that.
00:37:51.770 --> 00:37:53.617
Here it\'s over,
00:37:54.286 --> 00:37:58.846
because there were only a few of us.
We couldn\'t make ends meet.
00:38:01.028 --> 00:38:04.225
I was really enthusiastic
about raising vicunas, but...
00:38:04.225 --> 00:38:06.399
... it was sadly my loss.
00:38:20.713 --> 00:38:24.542
No one wants to live here,
above 4 thousand meters,
00:38:24.542 --> 00:38:28.012
because they get to know Arica once
and they don\'t want to come back,
00:38:28.012 --> 00:38:30.878
because it\'s completely different:
the commodities,
00:38:30.878 --> 00:38:32.538
nature\'s inclemency,
00:38:32.538 --> 00:38:35.142
the remoteness,
the social geographic marginalization.
00:38:35.142 --> 00:38:37.457
Young people don\'t want to return.
00:38:37.457 --> 00:38:39.047
For me, it\'s sad and unfortunate.
00:38:39.047 --> 00:38:40.282
Very sad, because
00:38:40.282 --> 00:38:42.565
the reality I lived during my childhood,
00:38:42.565 --> 00:38:47.348
when I first went to school
in Caquena, we were 35 students.
00:38:47.348 --> 00:38:49.718
Now there are two or three.
00:38:49.718 --> 00:38:51.752
The Putani village has no school,
00:38:51.752 --> 00:38:53.928
and the houses are all in ruins,
00:38:53.928 --> 00:38:59.018
and we remain at the farms.
We have nothing, no drinking water, nothing.
00:39:01.948 --> 00:39:04.209
Once the Interior Minister
asked me:
00:39:04.209 --> 00:39:07.358
\"Sixto: What will happen 5 years
from now in the highlands\".
00:39:07.358 --> 00:39:08.649
I said:
00:39:08.649 --> 00:39:11.159
\"It will be more abandoned
than it already is\".
00:39:11.159 --> 00:39:13.239
It is a reality, we have to accept it.
00:39:24.351 --> 00:39:29.768
If one goes to Bolivia and Peru, you can
clearly see there\'s a greater population.
00:39:29.768 --> 00:39:34.758
They have economic activities associated
to the domestic camelid production.
00:39:34.758 --> 00:39:37.908
Therefore they have access
to the use of natural resources
00:39:37.908 --> 00:39:40.783
in a much more direct way
than what we find here in Chile.
00:39:43.731 --> 00:39:47.357
These are multicultural republics
00:39:47.357 --> 00:39:50.061
and their constitutions
acknowledge it that way.
00:39:50.061 --> 00:39:54.125
They experience their ethnic origins
00:39:54.125 --> 00:39:57.261
in a very different way
than how we do it here in Chile.
00:39:57.261 --> 00:39:59.915
I think that indigenous recognition
00:39:59.915 --> 00:40:01.457
is fundamental,
00:40:01.457 --> 00:40:03.820
to understand how our country works.
00:40:03.820 --> 00:40:07.656
And through that indigenous recognition,
we would give an identity
00:40:07.656 --> 00:40:10.810
to that highland territory,
that was lost at one point,
00:40:11.600 --> 00:40:16.351
and along with it,
contribute to the vicuna conservation.
00:40:20.577 --> 00:40:21.981
You did the knot, right?
Yes
00:40:21.981 --> 00:40:24.362
Is it ready?
Okay, don\'t let it fall to the ground.
00:40:24.693 --> 00:40:26.893
Okay, steady.
00:40:26.893 --> 00:40:29.148
High honors to our national flag!
00:40:29.663 --> 00:40:31.083
Look to the right!
00:40:31.083 --> 00:40:33.101
Attention!
00:40:35.352 --> 00:40:39.300
We have to understand that,
when the peace agreement is signed
00:40:39.300 --> 00:40:41.800
in 1929 with Peru,
00:40:41.800 --> 00:40:43.550
through the Ancon Treaty,
00:40:43.550 --> 00:40:45.216
the countries\' borders are created,
00:40:45.216 --> 00:40:48.761
but people still have a sense of
belonging to their cultural background.
00:40:53.186 --> 00:40:57.073
That\'s our case. As a family, we belong
00:40:57.073 --> 00:41:00.137
to the indigenous community of Ancomarca.
00:41:02.372 --> 00:41:07.104
Ancomarca was the most important Peruvian-
Chilean-Bolivian indigenous community
00:41:07.734 --> 00:41:09.611
on this highland territory.
00:41:09.611 --> 00:41:12.496
Ancomarca\'s cultural center
is placed in Peru.
00:41:14.291 --> 00:41:16.208
So then: Where do you go to pray?
00:41:16.208 --> 00:41:18.136
where do you go and do your ceremonies?
00:41:18.136 --> 00:41:21.936
where do you go to meet your fellow
citizens, if you can\'t anymore?
00:41:21.936 --> 00:41:24.357
So, it also destroys the community.
00:41:25.207 --> 00:41:28.770
That\'s why there are many families
who have uncles and grandparents in Tacna,
00:41:28.770 --> 00:41:30.440
uncles and grandparents in La Paz,
00:41:30.440 --> 00:41:32.322
uncles and grandparents in Charaña
00:41:32.322 --> 00:41:34.052
and some were left here in Chile.
00:41:34.825 --> 00:41:38.445
Do you feel more Chilean than Peruvian?
Or more Bolivian than Chilean?
00:41:39.581 --> 00:41:41.581
Or are we really just a big Andean nation
00:41:41.581 --> 00:41:45.809
that to this day is still protecting it\'s
territories and can live like a community?
00:41:47.556 --> 00:41:51.316
But a community without its cultural and
religious core, cannot be.
00:41:51.316 --> 00:41:54.221
And that\'s a reality that
lives on to this day.
00:42:02.824 --> 00:42:04.469
Should we go to the Chilean one?
00:42:25.348 --> 00:42:28.771
When the legal commercialization
00:42:28.771 --> 00:42:30.180
of vicuna fiber begins,
00:42:30.640 --> 00:42:32.590
illegal hunting intensifies.
00:42:38.703 --> 00:42:41.343
That rise happens because
00:42:41.343 --> 00:42:45.813
there are now formal channels
of fiber commercialization,
00:42:45.813 --> 00:42:48.643
where people, perhaps uncaringly,
00:42:48.643 --> 00:42:50.630
go and buy
00:42:50.630 --> 00:42:52.642
lots of fiber that have been
00:42:52.642 --> 00:42:54.752
acquired illegally.
00:43:05.167 --> 00:43:08.246
This is not just a problem of the State.
00:43:08.816 --> 00:43:10.672
This problem belongs to every one of us.
00:43:10.672 --> 00:43:16.657
If I give all of the responsibility on the
trafficking of exotic species to the State
00:43:16.657 --> 00:43:20.345
because I want them to do it
and not represent me, then yes
00:43:20.345 --> 00:43:25.375
It is very likely that the State doesn\'t
have all the strength I would want
00:43:25.375 --> 00:43:29.446
to be able to control such a wide territory.
00:43:33.015 --> 00:43:34.375
To be honest,
00:43:34.375 --> 00:43:36.655
I am really worried,
00:43:36.655 --> 00:43:38.452
because we are realizing
00:43:38.452 --> 00:43:40.686
that the vicunas are
being threatened again.
00:43:40.686 --> 00:43:43.926
The species are in real danger
00:43:43.926 --> 00:43:46.126
because of illegal hunting,
00:43:46.126 --> 00:43:50.456
and because the alleged economic
benefits to the communities
00:43:50.456 --> 00:43:53.026
are not as real as we expected.
00:43:58.117 --> 00:44:00.205
What\'s being said about...
00:44:00.205 --> 00:44:02.920
...illegal hunting,
is just the tip of the iceberg.
00:44:03.114 --> 00:44:04.794
The chain needs to be cut
00:44:04.794 --> 00:44:08.803
precisely on the link where
the transaction is made:
00:44:08.803 --> 00:44:10.258
the buyer.
00:44:16.727 --> 00:44:18.284
Regarding the gravity
00:44:18.284 --> 00:44:20.857
of the sales chain
00:44:20.857 --> 00:44:22.962
of this kind of species,
00:44:22.962 --> 00:44:24.396
it\'s as serious
00:44:24.396 --> 00:44:25.763
for the one who
00:44:25.763 --> 00:44:28.674
sells it, as it is for the one
who buys it:
00:44:29.460 --> 00:44:33.147
\"You are also responsible for the
damage infringed upon this animal\".
00:44:39.990 --> 00:44:43.124
We were developing an
investigation on drug trafficking,
00:44:43.124 --> 00:44:45.438
with the Anti-narcotics Brigade
at the airport.
00:44:51.418 --> 00:44:52.992
In that context,
00:44:52.992 --> 00:44:54.985
we went by a store
00:44:54.985 --> 00:44:57.644
and found a huge beautiful blanket
00:44:57.644 --> 00:44:59.484
made from vicuna,
00:44:59.484 --> 00:45:01.084
and of course it gets your attention.
00:45:03.209 --> 00:45:07.587
When the whole procedures finishes,
with the trafficker\'s detention,
00:45:07.587 --> 00:45:09.717
I go back to the place
00:45:09.717 --> 00:45:11.236
and then
00:45:11.236 --> 00:45:13.502
I start going through the CITES regulation.
00:45:15.166 --> 00:45:18.896
It was determined that the regulation
were not implemented,
00:45:18.896 --> 00:45:20.708
that there was no CITES certification,
00:45:20.708 --> 00:45:22.853
and in consequence, you find yourself in an...
00:45:22.853 --> 00:45:23.713
...illegal market.
00:45:25.759 --> 00:45:28.726
For that blanket to exist in that place,
00:45:28.726 --> 00:45:30.287
its first logical consequence
00:45:30.287 --> 00:45:33.016
has to be: its regularity.
00:45:34.212 --> 00:45:38.676
I mean no one in northern Chile would
make one sole blanket to sell
00:45:38.676 --> 00:45:41.316
to a luxury store at the airport, no.
00:45:41.316 --> 00:45:44.212
The first logical consequence:
there is regularity here.
00:46:06.655 --> 00:46:09.284
The chief of New Zealand,
I forgot his name,
00:46:09.284 --> 00:46:12.106
but he was an elderly man at the time,
00:46:12.716 --> 00:46:14.196
calls me,
00:46:15.006 --> 00:46:16.866
and he says: \"Víctor...
00:46:16.866 --> 00:46:21.446
... we made a huge inspection...
00:46:21.446 --> 00:46:24.246
... and on one of the containers on a ship
00:46:24.246 --> 00:46:27.526
in transit from Japan to New Zealand,
00:46:27.526 --> 00:46:29.112
we put it under the X-ray.
00:46:30.075 --> 00:46:32.139
It had a hidden space like a double depth,
00:46:32.558 --> 00:46:34.929
we opened that hidden space,
00:46:34.929 --> 00:46:36.875
we took the lid off
00:46:36.875 --> 00:46:40.478
and inside, there were 14 vicuna skins
transformed into rugs\".
00:46:40.478 --> 00:46:43.578
We started to investigate that trail,
00:46:43.578 --> 00:46:45.008
the journey of that product,
00:46:45.008 --> 00:46:46.487
how did that product get there,
00:46:46.487 --> 00:46:48.170
where did that product come from,
00:46:48.170 --> 00:46:51.868
where is this kind of species being sold.
00:46:53.600 --> 00:46:55.568
We found products that came from vicunas.
00:46:55.885 --> 00:46:57.595
It was not an isolated phenomenon.
00:47:00.787 --> 00:47:05.210
They did electrophoresis in New Zealand,
to see its DNA and find out what it was.
00:47:05.210 --> 00:47:07.064
They gave us the samples,
00:47:07.644 --> 00:47:10.790
and they were our vicunas,
from our highlands.
00:47:11.270 --> 00:47:15.278
Then he said: \"You need to put an eye on
this, because you have vicuna trafficking\".
00:47:15.278 --> 00:47:17.070
They were being taken to New Zealand,
00:47:17.070 --> 00:47:18.661
and they were taking them
00:47:18.661 --> 00:47:20.191
from right here, from Chile.
00:47:21.921 --> 00:47:24.258
I said to the boys:
\"Okay, let\'s see.
00:47:24.258 --> 00:47:27.331
If they are sending rugs,
someone is tanning them\".
00:47:30.347 --> 00:47:31.927
Because it\'s one thing to
00:47:32.540 --> 00:47:33.940
kill the animal,
00:47:34.342 --> 00:47:36.821
then skinning the animal,
00:47:36.821 --> 00:47:39.762
and another process is tanning the fiber.
00:47:39.762 --> 00:47:43.988
There was an investigation hypothesis that
needs to be developed: whether this was licit.
00:47:43.988 --> 00:47:45.626
No, it wasn\'t licit.
00:47:46.785 --> 00:47:48.443
The investigation...
00:47:48.443 --> 00:47:51.303
... is complicated, on all that has to do
with the desert.
00:47:51.303 --> 00:47:54.973
At that time there wasn\'t a good enough
legislation like there is now,
00:47:54.973 --> 00:47:58.881
for example coming from CITES, which
specifically penalizes smuggling.
00:47:58.881 --> 00:48:01.381
As a consequence,
00:48:01.381 --> 00:48:05.201
the weak legislation available
to investigate this felony,
00:48:05.201 --> 00:48:08.119
was the reason why we couldn\'t
proceed with the investigation.
00:48:18.972 --> 00:48:23.238
But, low punishment felonies
00:48:24.789 --> 00:48:26.853
have one good thing for the investigator,
00:48:26.853 --> 00:48:28.738
that is the possibility for negotiation
00:48:28.738 --> 00:48:29.858
with the defendant.
00:48:31.065 --> 00:48:32.065
In consequence,
00:48:33.073 --> 00:48:35.991
if the crime has low punishment,
I can say to the defendant:
00:48:35.991 --> 00:48:37.817
\"Mister defendant.
00:48:37.817 --> 00:48:39.991
You are selling this,
00:48:40.531 --> 00:48:42.722
you can, ultimately,
00:48:42.722 --> 00:48:45.475
go through negotiation with me,
I lower your sentence,
00:48:46.246 --> 00:48:48.108
but you have to indicate to me...
00:48:48.108 --> 00:48:49.828
... who sold it to you\".
00:50:03.589 --> 00:50:06.129
Up there near the Bolivian border,
00:50:06.129 --> 00:50:07.819
I had a nickname:
00:50:08.562 --> 00:50:09.860
Billy.
00:50:14.470 --> 00:50:17.372
He was a very good shooter,
he had great aiming skills,
00:50:17.372 --> 00:50:18.897
and he had a very nice rifle.
00:50:19.502 --> 00:50:21.722
He knew the desert very well.
00:50:34.328 --> 00:50:36.128
He got away twice.
00:50:36.831 --> 00:50:39.012
One of those times when he got away,
00:50:39.012 --> 00:50:40.510
I\'m sure...
00:50:40.510 --> 00:50:42.784
... I\'m sure we went right by him.
00:50:43.234 --> 00:50:46.027
And he had such great camouflage,
00:50:46.027 --> 00:50:48.014
that I\'m sure he buried himself.
00:50:48.014 --> 00:50:51.014
He was buried and we went right by him.
00:50:57.836 --> 00:50:59.496
I would tell the police officers:
00:51:01.346 --> 00:51:02.987
\"At some point, he is coming...
00:51:04.176 --> 00:51:09.146
... at some point, he is going
to come out to hunt\".
Distributor: Pragda Films
Length: 52 minutes
Date: 2020
Genre: Expository
Language: English; Spanish; German
Grade: Middle School, High School, College, Adults
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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