SANTIAGO: Protesters against Chile President Sebastian Pinera’s government have rallied around a student blinded by police rubber bullets and his family hopes a photo capturing his injuries will increase international pressure on the administration.
Gustavo Gatica’s name is shouted at police, borne on placards and scrawled on walls around the city.
Gatica, 22, was taking pictures of a protest when he was hit on November 8. His case became a lightning rod in Chile for fury directed at police for alleged widespread human rights abuses during more than six weeks of demonstrations over social inequality that have left at least 26 people dead and 13,000 injured, according to prosecutors and human rights organisations.
He is one of two known cases of people left completely blind but at least 241 Chileans have suffered from eye injuries during the protests, according to Chile’s Institute for Human Rights (INDH). Pinera has sought to mollify protesters with a spending package and a vote on a new constitution, but the marches continue and spiked last week when doctors confirmed in a statement they had been unable to save Gatica’s eyes.
The Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel said last week that the Gatica case was “deeply painful” and made clear police protocols around the use of force needed to be revised. Police have suspended the use of rubber bullets except in cases of threat to life.
— Reuters
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