The Tragic - and Needless - Deaths of Claudio and Max Chiarelli: Conspiracy Theories and Lessons Learned

At around 15.30 hours on Sunday, 13 March, the well-known and well-respected professional hunter Claudio Chiarelli, holder of Zimbabwe professional hunter’s licence number 58 (1989) and his son Max died tragically - and needlessly - in a hail of gunfire in the Mana Pools National Park. Initial reports blamed poachers, but in fact it was blue-on-blue: euphemistically-named “friendly fire”.

- J Larivers

Claudio and Max had been performing voluntary support duties for National Parks in the area, in concert with the Zambezi Society. On that fateful afternoon, they had gone out to collect a National Parks ranger patrol that had been following poachers’ spoor, and to deploy a further two three-man patrols; six rangers were travelling with them, as was Francesco Marconati, who operates the Vine Lodge in the park. This would feed a lot of grist into the omnipresent rumour mills, in and out of Zimbabwe, because of the “Chinese connection”.

Claudio and Max’s vehicle was parked on the side of the road in the middle section of the park; unwittingly, they had stopped a mere fifteen metres from the spot where the poachers’ spoor had crossed the road. The National Parks APU had been on spoor since around 09.00 that morning, and as they closed with the road, suddenly they heard the sound of voices. Claudio and Max had opened the bonnet of their Land Cruiser and were standing in front of the truck; Francesco and the other rangers had deployed farther back around the Cruiser. At this time of the year, the end of the rainy season, the bush can be unbelievably thick and visibility almost at a minimum. As the rangers slowly advanced, one of them caught sight of a flash of blue, Claudio’s shirt, and assuming it to be a poacher, they opened fire. Tragically, Claudio and Max died instantly.

The rumours began flying thick and fast, and it was only after Richard Maasdorp and Gary Layard of the Zambezi Society had visited the park and spoken with those involved that the actual facts emerged.