Chile: Report sexual abuse by police during curfew

Many cases of abuse of power and sexual nature during the crackdown on recent protests against Sebastián Piñera's government policy have been reported by feminist networks and organizations in Chile.

Feminist and human rights networks have denounced numerous cases of sexual abuse by members of the Chilean special forces, police and army, including detentions during protests in various cities in Chile during the state of emergency.

The protests in Chile began late last week, after the Piñera government planned an increase in the rate of transport, and the crackdown, clashes with protesters and their derivatives left 15 dead and hundreds wounded. bullet- and about 1,300 inmates.

The protests resulted in massive repudiation of precarious health and education, social security pensions and "government bargaining with elites and businesses," said Andrea Ramos, of Valparaíso (Chile) , for Radio Comunitaria la Mosquitera, Argentina.

After the departure of thousands of Chileans in the streets, the Piñera executive responded with the police, the militarized police, the army and the special police operations group (BEPG) in the street and gave them the green light to act at their discretion.

Balance

The National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) on Tuesday released a new report in which it reported that it had initiated 21 legal actions in favor of 53 people, including two complaints of violence against women in police stations, announced Chilean radio Tele13.

"There are several girls detained and many others missing since Friday, the mothers are desperate, we are with missing detainees as under the dictatorship," said Patricia, a 47-year-old psychologist who did not given his last name, in a viralized audio recording

He warned that "in Chile" there is a communication barrier: the excesses are committed by the police and the army who enter homes to loot, and the women most severely affected ".

Sexual violence against women of a political nature is a continuing practice in Chile and in the region, "given that the police apparatus has always been qualified to be a patriarchal device," he said. Silvana del Valle, a lawyer with the Chilean Network Against Violence Against Women. , quoted by Red Harvest.

One of the arrested women stated that she was returned to the trash and that a serviceman, with the service weapon, after threatening to kill her if she moved, touched her body with a rifle and threatened to "penetrate with the weapon". ", told INDH one of the actions it has raised today.

The number of sexual violence and harassment against women has been increasing since the beginning of the protests, said NGO Amaranta, which is collecting testimony.

Six appeals were also lodged with the judge of the guarantees "for the urgency related to the conditions of detention of the victims", said Sergio Micco, director of the INDH, to Tele13.

Patricia explained that "the girls who were arrested were all undressed in front of men, not women as required by law, they were all touched to the genitals, breasts, several were placed or the end of the rifle or the ass, in the vagina and they were told that they wanted to be raped in the ass, they all treated them like whores, they will rape them and then they will kill them, a lot of these girls do not always go back to their homes. "

The feminist coordinator of 8M has called today to organize "with our neighbors and at popular assemblies" and said that "feminists will be on the streets despite the army , the militarized police and the GOPE ".