Crisis in Chile: videos showing police brutality on the streets

The violent scenes of repression unleashed to try to end the incidents that keep vilo Chile for a week put on alert to human rights organizations. According to their information, they accumulate complaints of torture, shooting at defenseless civilians, unlawful detentions, abuses and all sorts of abuses.

In a context of militarization In the big cities, something that has not been seen since the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, the images of the armed forces and the police were repeated, shooting at the demonstrators and dispersing the mobilizations with tanks.

But in the last hours he multiplication of complaints about alleged unlawful acts who have not been captured by television cameras or mobile phones, while the controversy over the veracity of images of viral police brutality has spread to social networks.

The Chilean Minister of Justice, Hernán Larraín, offered a press conference in which he mentioned this situation and warned that "all those who have responsibilities they must suffer the consequences if criminal acts are found. "

"It hurts us deeply to verify the existence of people who have died or are seriously injured.Our commitment to democracy is inalienable and inseparable from respect for and the protection of human rights and the functioning of human rights. 39, the rule of law, "he added.

The situation has led the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH), an autonomous body funded by public funds, to file a complaint about lack of transparency in the dissemination of official figures on those killed, injured or detained during the social epidemic.

Sergio Micco, director of the Institute, warned that "police and military actions have disappeared in crescendo"These last days", as evidenced by the number of detainees, wounded and dead. "Until this Wednesday, the NHRI had confirmed information on the deaths of five people under the action of state agents, among the 18 dead since the beginning of the conflict.

In addition, there were 376 wounded (173 of them shot) and 2138 detainees, including nearly 250 children or adolescents. He also recorded "stories of striptease, torture, shooting at civilians, physical and verbal abuse, beatingsThe police have been slow to bring detainees to the police station and keep them in vans, with insufficient ventilation and overcrowding, for hours, "according to a public statement.

It has also initiated 44 legal actions to defend the victims of the repression. The NHRI has advisers appointed by the presidency of the nation, legislative chambers, universities and human rights groups. In turn, the Communist Party of Chile denounced the fact that the staff of the carabineros was completed this morning illegal detentions in a local youth communist (JJCC), in the middle of the curfew that reigned in Santiago.

The group denounced the fact that three of their representatives were arrested and detained for several hours at the third police station in Santiago, until their release this morning. "This detention took place inside a building, without any provocation, without breaking the curfew.They were attacked with pepper gas and taken to the 3rd police station of the Carabiniers de Santiago" JJCC said in a statement.

In the neighborhood of Las Condes, neighbors reported that members of the army had fired about 40 shots and injured two people, one of them seriously. According to the testimonies collected by Cooperative radioThe army carried out at least 38 shots of protesters while they were already in the houses.

A shared social media video showed that when soldiers arrived at the scene, at the corner of Fleming and Vital Apoquindo Streets, protesters who had taken refuge in barricades started throwing stones at the soldiers. uniform, who were shot. According to the complaint, even if the protesters took refuge inside their homes, the army was pointing directly to the houses to shoot them.

The online version of the newspaper The third published a case that was the subject of several comments. According to this version, a rumor has reported to social media that two judges were found Tuesday at the police station in Baquedano, located inside the metro. prisoners suspended from the ceiling with ropes and tortured.

"All this was denied this morning by judges Daniel Urrutia and Darwin Bratti, formed last night in these police premises. do not find detainees there, or indication of the facts denounced, "says the report.

It all started with the presentation of a preventive protection presented by the student Nicolás Luer, with the sponsorship of the professor of law of the University of Chile, Myrna Villegas. The young man said he was illegally detained by the police. When he was transferred to the Baquedano Police Station, he saw other people being tied up, hanging on the roof and suffering from torture.

Judges Urrutia and Bratti went to the scene, questioned the carabinieri staff, examined the security cameras and installations, and concluded that there were no detainees or traces of their presence. "We saw no detainees, no less evidence that there were people hanging from the ceiling," says Bratti, although Urrutia agreed that there were two ropes sliced ​​to the ground.