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Saturday, December 28, 2019

Chile: Mass Protests -- Massive Human Rights Violations

"We never thought we would have to come back to Chile under these circumstances to record massive human rights violations."
"We thought this was history."
Jose Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch

"Carabineros is a militarized police force, with a military structure and logic, not a civil police force."
"All attempts to reform it after dictatorship have been very slow, with very little capacity for civilian control."
Claudio Fuentes, professor, Diego Portales University

"The march was very peaceful, but when we approached a mall some soldiers appeared. Some protesters began to insult them and they suddenly knelt and aimed their guns at us."
"After the first shots rang out people started throwing stones. More gunfire followed – and that’s when Romario was hit. We must have been more than 100 metres away, so we couldn’t have hurt or threatened them."
Ulises Cortés, 19-year-old student, Coquimbo, Chile

Riot police chases demonstrators during a protest against the government in Santiago on 19 November 2019.

Photograph: Claudio Reyes/AFP via Getty Images

Two months ago the Chilean protests were inaugurated when a proposed subway fare increase brought people to the streets and then inequality was identified as a greater issue in the peaceful gatherings which swiftly turned to violence in confrontations with police whose abuse of the protesters was starkly reminiscent of Chile's years under dictatorship. Chile's National Institute for Human Rights, an agency of the state, categorized thousands of instances of abuse.

The National Institute for Human Rights looked at 400 of the incidents they documented as torture and cruel treatment, while another 194 involved sexual violence, along with four rapes. Excessive use of force by police was charged in over 800 incidents, among them at least six killings by security forces. Chile's national police force, the Carabineros, has reacted to the street unrest precisely as they did under the rule of General Augusto Pinochet, when it finally ended back in 1990.

Carabineros fire tear gas on protesters during demonstrations at Plaza Baquedano, in Santiago, Chile, 15 November 2019.

Police accused of aiming at peoples' eyes EPA

At that time, the kind of human rights violations notched up by the Carabineros resulted in the deaths and disappearances of over three thousand Chileans, with some 38,000 people having undergone systemic torture while in incarceration. General Mario Rozas, who heads the Carabineros spoke of 856 internal investigations in response to the reports, and announced institutional changes to the Carabineros' organization.

Chile's President Sebastian Pinera has opened welcoming arms to four human rights organizations; the Organization of American States and the United Nations among them, claiming that all accusations will be investigated. A task force led by the interior minister is prepared to propose reforms. The use of pellets has been suspended by police, but as the human rights groups point out, the Carabineros continue to fire tear gas cartridges at demonstrators.

Eye injuries suffered at the hands of police have left hundreds of demonstrators maimed, caused by the indiscriminate use of riot guns. Two protesters were blinded. Altogether, over 12,700 people were wounded across Chile since mid-October. In the past two years, 35 generals in the Carabineros were involved in a series of scandals, and ousted, including the former police chief who stepped down last year after an anti-terrorist squad killed an indigenous man, then covered it up.

An injured protester walks during a protest against Chile's government in Santiago, Chile, November 15, 2019.

More than 200 protesters have sustained eye injuries Reuters

One of the largest, most far-reaching embezzlement scandals in the history of the country involved senior officers of the Carabineros, involving some $35-million, which led to the conviction of close to 100 police officers and civilians. For the past ten years, large protests demanded education and pension reform, an end to corruption, and respect for the land rights of indigenous people.