A Congressional commission has concluded that Chile’s national police force did not respect human rights during the social outbreak of 2019. The commission is asking for a total transformation of the institution. Other international organizations have also made similar suggestions.
A recent report of the Congressional investigative commission regarding the conduct of the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, Chile’s national police force (the Carabineros), and its Investigations Police (PDI) during the social outbreak (estallido) in 2019 concluded that these institutions failed to respect human rights.
The report also asks the government to take several remedial actions – among them, to “commit to a deep, structural and immediate transformation” of the Carabineros.
It recommends that this transformation be a collaborative one, in which the people also take part, to “meet the needs of a democratic State.”
The commission also seeks the immediate review of all lawsuits under the State Interior Security Law.
The report has been issued to the Presidency of the Republic, the National Human Rights Institute (INDH), the Carabineros, and the PDI.
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Amnesty International
This report comes at the same time that Amnesty International, in anticipation of President Sebastián Piñera’s upcoming trip to Europe, is asking the continent’s governments “not to be accomplices” to the crimes against humanity committed in the context of the estallido and demonstrations that have taken place since October of 2019.
The organization sent out a letter to the Presidents of Italy, France, Spain, and England, arguing that legal investigations as to human rights violations have made little to no progress, and calling upon these authorities to highlight the importance of obtaining closure for these cases and Chile taking reparative action for “the victims.”
According to numbers provided by the INDH, between October 2019 and March 2020, 2,825 people were victims of human rights violations in 4,075 reported incidents. The Carabineros were implicated in 3,806 of these; 101 people suffered eye trauma, including people who lost their eyes or vision; and seven deaths have been linked to the Carabineros actions.
Javiera is from Santiago de Chile, she is studying journalism at Universidad de Chile, since 2017 and doing her internship at Chile Today.