Senator Fabiola Campillai filed a CLP$2.2 billion tort lawsuit against the Chilean State. In November 2019, she was hit in the face by a police teargas bomb during a demonstration. The damage from the impact left her blind.
Senator for the Metropolitan Region, Fabiola Campillai, filed a 93-page personal injury complaint against the Chilean State. The senator seeks CLP$700 million for herself and CLP$1.5 billion for her family as a result of being hit in the face with a police teargas bomb during the Estallido. As The Guardian reported last year, “The impact shattered her skull and caused cerebrospinal fluid to leak on to her brain. It blinded her totally and irreversibly, depriving her of sight, taste and smell.”
“It isn’t correct that the police officer is the only one to pay, because he is only going to get prison time, which can be shortened, because you know there are benefits for anyone here, even for those who violate human rights,” Campillai told Cooperativa.
Radio Biobío had access to the lawsuit, which says that the senator is a “survivor of a major aggression from state agents against her.” The complaint alleges that the Chilean State is responsible for the injuries the Chilean police caused Campillai.
The day that changed the life of Campillai
Villa Grimaldi, a memorial site, recounts that Campillai on the night of November 26, 2019, left her home to go to work, and, as she was walking to a bus stop she was hit in the face by a teargas bomb launched by police. After a coma and several surgeries, she never regained the three senses lost: sight, smell, and taste.
The individual accused of hitting her with the teargas, former police officer Patricio Maturana Ojeda, is under house arrest, awaiting sentencing. He faces a 12-year sentence. Meanwhile, Radio Biobío reports that Campillai’s complaint against the state will be handled by María Teresa Díaz, jurisdiction minister from the San Miguel Court, and the case could last up to three years.
Catalina Vergara is graduated in Social Communications from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She has previously worked on Strategic Communications.