• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Saturday, May 24, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

‘Serious’ Rights Violations During Chile Protests: Human Rights Watch

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
11/27/19
in Featured, World
Aerial view of demonstrators during the fifth straight day of protests against a now suspended hike in metro ticket prices in Valparaiso Chile, on October 22, 2019. - Photo:JAVIER TORRES/AFP

Aerial view of demonstrators during the fifth straight day of protests against a now suspended hike in metro ticket prices in Valparaiso Chile, on October 22, 2019. - Photo:JAVIER TORRES/AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

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 unrest that began on October 18 with protests against a rise in rush-hour metro fares has mushroomed into a broader outcry against the status quo, with daily confrontations between demonstrators and police.

Protesters cite low wages, high costs for education and healthcare and a yawning gap between rich and poor in a country dominated politically and economically by a few elite families.

A common refrain of the protests has become “neoliberalism was born in Chile and it will die in Chile.”

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.


More on the Subject 

Chile to Vote on New Constitution in Response to Mass Protests

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Chilean Senators Approve Pension Reform. Photo: AFP.
World

Chile’s Senate Approves Pension Reform Law in Blow to President Piñera

by Victoria Mulville
July 23, 2020
Aerial view of demonstrators during the fifth straight day of protests against a now suspended hike in metro ticket prices in Valparaiso Chile, on October 22, 2019. - Photo:JAVIER TORRES/AFP
Featured

Violence Flares as Chile Braces for New Anti-Government Protests

by Staff Writer
March 3, 2020
Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth. Photo: AFP
Featured

China Defends Barring Human Rights Watch Head from Hong Kong

by Staff Writer
January 13, 2020
France was paralyzed Thursday amid a mass trike protesting President Emmanuel Macron's proposed pension cuts. Photo: AFP
Featured

New Mass Protests in France as Pension Dispute Grinds On

by Staff Writer
January 9, 2020
France was paralyzed Thursday amid a mass trike protesting President Emmanuel Macron's proposed pension cuts. Photo: AFP
Featured

France Braces for Second Day of Mass Strikes Over Pension Cuts

by Staff Writer
December 6, 2019
Anti-immigration protesters in Slovakia
Featured

What is Causing the Rise of Today’s Global Far Right?

by Bryan Bowman
December 4, 2019
Next Post
Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Amnesty Slams Egypt's 'Parallel Justice System'

Children work at a mine in Afghanistan. Photo: AFP

Child Labor in Hazardous Conditions Persistent Worldwide: Report

Recommended

harvard

Trump Admin Revokes Harvard’s Right to Enroll Foreign Students

May 23, 2025
Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest

‘Red Alert’: Fires Drive Tropical Forest Loss to Record High

May 21, 2025
Men pass a young girl to safety over rubble in Jabalia Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip, on May 18, 2025. Search and rescue teams rescue a Palestinian girl from under the rubble after the Israeli army attacked a building at the Jabalia Refugee Camp

WHO Chief Says 2 Million ‘Starving’ in Gaza

May 20, 2025
Calais, successful crossing of migrants to England

UK PM Says in Talks Over Third Country ‘Return Hubs’ for Migrants

May 16, 2025
AI chatbot applications.

Meta Faces Row Over Plan to Use European Data for AI

May 14, 2025
A photo taken with a drone over Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Johnny Miller/Millefoto

White S. Africans Due for US Resettlement to Leave Sunday: Govt

May 12, 2025

Opinion

A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Putin talks to Trump in Hamburg

From Roosevelt to Trump: The Complicated Legacy of Personal Diplomacy

November 15, 2024
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Can the UN Human Rights Council Protect Rights While Abusers Sit at the Table?

October 28, 2024
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post