SANTIAGO, Nov 27, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Chile’s national police committed
“serious human rights violations” as weeks of violent demonstrations across
the South American country claimed 25 lives, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday
in a report calling for reform of the force.
HRW said the police, known as Carabineros, “committed serious human rights
violations, including excessive use of force in the streets and abuses in
detention,” during the protests.
The New York-based right group had received hundreds of disturbing reports
of abuse, including cases of beatings and sexual assault, Jose Miguel
Vivanco, HRW’s director for the Americas, told a press conference in
Santiago.
“We believe that the abuses are not isolated cases, they are not
coincidences,” said Vivanco.
The rights groups said in a statement it met with President Sebastian
Pinera in Santiago on Tuesday, recommending a series of reforms to help
prevent police misconduct.
The reforms were needed “in the wake of compelling evidence of excessive
use of force and abuses against demonstrators and bystanders.”
Among its recommendations is a thorough reform of the Chilean police,
including reviewing detention protocols for identity checks, setting up
internal control mechanisms and strengthening police training.
“We recognize the value of the Human Rights Watch report and the
recommendations that have been made to us,” said Lorena Recabarren, the
Chilean minister with responsibility for human rights.
She said the findings “concern us and, of course, are ones we receive with
pain.”
– Blinded by pellets –
Meanwhile university student Gustavo Gatica became the first demonstrator
to be left fully blind after being hit in the eyes by pellets fired by riot
police on November 8 during a protest in Santiago.
Gatica’s case has become a symbol among the more than 200 demonstrators who
have suffered eye injuries — often resulting in being blinded in one eye —
from rubber bullets and pellets fired by riot police.
Due to the high number of injuries and pressure from humanitarian groups,
police said they would stop using such weapons.
Meanwhile violent demos continued in Chile’s main cities, with looting and
burning reported in places like La Serena and Iquique in the north, and San
Antonio and Valparaiso, in central Chile.
In Santiago, thousands gathered for a march downtown that riot police
eventually broke up by deploying water cannons.