Less than a month before Chile votes on whether to replace its Pinochet-era constitution, police have brutally repressed demonstrators in the capital, Santiago.
On Friday night Carabineros police officers used plumes of teargas and high-pressure water jets to disperse protesters congregating in Plaza Italia, where pockets of violence flared amid a heavy police presence.
Videos show a 16-year-old boy being bundled over the railings of a bridge by a police officer. The boy fell into the dirty concrete channel of the Mapocho river, where he lay motionless, face down in the shallow water.
Photo: AFP
“As the protesters fled, we saw the moment that the officer intercepted [the boy] and threw him from the bridge,” said Pavel Pavelic Jofre, who led a company of volunteers at the protests. “We managed to get two of our group down to assist him, and after stabilizing his condition the fire brigade were able to lift him away from the river to be taken to hospital.”
Addressing the incident in a televised address, Carabineros spokesperson General Enrique Monras did not rule out the force’s responsibility for what had happened, but said that in his opinion, the boy “lost his balance and fell” during an arrest.
He said the force had its own set of videos that absolved it of blame, although he did not say what they showed.
Photo: AP
The boy was said to be in a stable condition in the Santa Maria Clinic, a short distance from where the incident took place.
As images began to filter on to social media, the Carabineros faced renewed pressure to act on a perceived culture of brutality.
Opposition politicians called for General Mario Rozas, director-general of the Carabineros, to resign following a string of alleged human rights violations.
Since October last year, Chile has been rocked by a wave of mass protests against rampant inequality and a host of systemic injustices. The ensuing police crackdown has been condemned internationally.
Chile’s public prosecutor has said that since last Oct. 8 last year, 575 alleged human rights violations have been perpetrated by the Carabineros in the repression of protests, and only 16 police agents have been stood down as a result.
A series of cabinet reshuffles have resulted in three men successively being put in charge of the Chilean Ministry of the Interior and Public Security since the demonstrations began, yet the police have retained the support of the government in spite of the numerous allegations against them.
Several international missions, including a delegation sent by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, a former Chilean president, delivered damning reports detailing numerous violations that have occurred during the protests, including alleged torture and sexual abuse.
Nonetheless, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera used his address before the UN General Assembly less than two weeks ago to call for values such as respect for human rights to be strengthened around the world.
Chile’s constitutional referendum is to be held on Oct. 25.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS