[ad_1]
Of: TT
Published:
Photo: Fernando Llano / AP / TT
A Chilean police officer fired a tear gas canister at protesters in the Chilean capital Santiago on December 18 last year. Stock Photography.
More than 400 people suffered eye injuries during massive protests against economic inequality in Chile last year. A police officer has now been arrested on suspicion in one of the most serious cases, where a woman was left completely blind after being hit by a tear gas canister.
Fabiola Campillai was waiting for the bus on her way to work in the capital Santiago on November 26, 2019 when she was hit in the face by the tear gas canister. She was one of two people who went completely blind after being hit by projectiles fired by police during protests critical for the government that broke out in October of that year.
The demonstrations, where demands for social reform were at the center, did not abate until March of this year when the crown crisis struck.
Late on Thursday, a special forces police officer was arrested as the prime suspect in causing Campillai’s serious injuries. The arrest follows a deprivation of liberty in early August by another police officer suspected of causing the blindness of a 22-year-old man.
Waiting for more
The Chilean Institute of Human Rights (INDH) welcomes the arrests, but criticizes the delay.
“It could have happened much faster, the Chilean police can do more,” NHRI president Sergio Micco told Reuters.
Fabiola Campillai says that she has now regained some confidence in the judiciary and that she hopes that justice can also be done to other victims.
– It is not only the one who shot me the culprit, there was a whole picket and there was someone who was in command, says the 37-year-old mother of three children to the Efe news agency.
Criticized by the UN
More than 30 people died, 3,000 were injured and 30,000 were arrested during the protests. Of the 8,575 crime reports, 413 people suffered eye injuries and 3,342 injuries caused by firearms, according to Reuters. So far, lawsuits have been filed against 62 police officers for alleged crimes during the sometimes violent protests.
The handling of the demonstrations by the forces of order has been criticized, among others, by the UN and Amnesty International.
Published:
