Gabriela Blas Still Behind Bars 4 Years Later

Before being put away, the Aymaran woman, indigenous to the north of Chile since pre-Colombian times, tended to a herd of alpacas. In July of 2007, she left her son Domingo Eloy in her home while she searched for a few animals that had strayed from the herd. In the remote mountains of Caicone - where nannies, kindergarten and daycare don’t exist - he wandered 15 kilometers into the cold wilderness and died.

The judge found her guilty of abandoning a minor under the age of ten and sent her to prison for ten years. Her incarceration sparked a controversy because, some say, she received a harsher-than-usual punishment.

The Social Movement Organization for the Freedom of Gabriela accused authorities of not considering the traditions of indigenous cultures in her punishment, which they are required, by law, to do according to the ILO Convention 169. 

The defense called his death an unfortunate accident that occurred as Blas was taking part in traditional cultural practices of the Aymara people.  These practices involve children accompanying their parents in pastoral activities.

The social movement has asked the state to give her a presidential pardon.

To complicate matters, Blas was also convicted of having relations with her brother and for obstructing the investigation. When police questioned Blas, they said she had conflicting stories. She claimed that the cover up was an attempt to protect herself and her family.

Her web of stories didn’t help her in the end; Most of her daughters have been adopted without her consent.  As for the relation with her brother, experts said that is not a normal practice of Aymaran culture.

According to Francisco Rivera Bustos, a citizen journalist for El Morrocotudo, Blas faced a hostile courtroom during her October 2010 retrial.  He wrote that he was concerned by the “faces in the audience of scorn and intolerance while the cultural experts in the audience explained the Aymaran worldview, ancestral and ceremonial prayers… politics and spirituality.”

The court of appeals actually overturned her sentence in August 2010 for “violating the rules of formal logic.” They said that the previous case has a lack of evidence supporting that she abandoned her son.  In her new trial in October 2010, she was tried and sentenced again, this time for 12 years. Her defense exhausted their ability to appeal, which means her fate behind bars is sealed until 2019.

When compared to cases in less remote areas of Chile, her punishment is considerably longer. Last October in Santiago, a nursery school teacher named Eugenia Riffo Tapia forgot a three-year old in her ovenhot car while she picniced for two hours on the playground with the other students. The boy died, and after a highly publicized trial, Tapia received a one-year sentence.  After she gets out, Tapia is free to work as a nursey school teacher should she choose to continue her profession. 

Long after the state grants Tapia her freedom, Blas will be waiting behind bars. Although Blas said she still doesn’t understand her conviction because she believes she’s not directly responsible for her son’s death, her mood has improved over the past few months. With a renewed spirituality, she hopes that the worst years are behind her.