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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/24/chiles-us-backed-shooting-protesters-blinding-maiming-thousands/">https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/24/chiles-us-backed-shooting-protesters-blinding-maiming-thousands/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Chile’s US-backed gov’t is shooting
anti-austerity protesters, blinding and maiming by the
thousands</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Ben Norton February 24, 2020<br>
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<h3>Chile has responded to anti-neoliberal protests with
brutally violent repression. 10,365 people have been
detained; 3765 treated for wounds in hospitals; and 2122
shot, 445 in the eye according to a conservative
estimate by the state-backed National Institute of Human
Rights.</h3>
<h3>By Ben Norton</h3>
<p>While the US government, international NGOs, and <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/19/nicaragua-peace-media-international-ngos-violence-reporting/">corporate
media outlets have relentlessly demonized</a> the
elected governments in <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/11/life-resistance-venezuela-ben-norton-us-blockade/">Venezuela</a>
and <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/22/nicaragua-sandinista-revolution-40th-anniversary/">Nicaragua</a>,
the Washington-backed right-wing administration in Chile
has been violent cracking down on an uprising against
neoliberal policies, and with virtual impunity.</p>
<p>In October 2019, protests erupted across Chile against
the government of President Sebastián Piñera, a
billionaire oligarch who has defended the former <a
href="https://radio.uchile.cl/2017/09/05/cuando-pinera-defendia-a-pinochet/">military
dictator Augusto Pinochet</a> while cutting social
spending and pushing further privatization in a country
where <a
href="https://www.publimetro.cl/cl/nacional/2016/11/23/chile-unico-pais-mundo-que-agua-privada.html">water
is already privatized</a>.</p>
<p>Soon after the demonstrations broke out, Piñera
proclaimed, “We are at war!” The president’s language
evoked horrifying memories for many Chileans who lived
through the state terror of the Pinochet dictatorship,
and for the families of those killed by it.</p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="es">Luego de que Presidente Piñera
indicara que “ estamos en guerra” proliferaron las
comparaciones con Pinochet <a
href="https://t.co/AqjuJ3m7jZ">pic.twitter.com/AqjuJ3m7jZ</a></p>
<p>— El Siglo (@elsiglochile) <a
href="https://twitter.com/elsiglochile/status/1186119552238870528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October
21, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The United States and allied institutions like the
Organization of American States (OAS) have long praised
Chile as a shining example of democracy in South
America. But the country is still bound to a
constitution written during Pinochet’s dictatorship.
Protesters have demanded a new constitution, and a <a
href="https://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-chile-sepultara-constitucion-pinochet-plebiscito-abril-201912210149_noticia.html">plebiscite
in April</a> could change that, if it is not delayed
by the Piñera administration.</p>
<p>A poll in January found that <a
href="https://www.cnnchile.com/pais/encuesta-cep-enero-2020-gestion-gobierno-pinera-estallido-social_20200116/">Piñera’s
approval rating</a> had plummeted to a record low of
just 6 percent, with a whopping disapproval rating of 82
percent. (Compare this to a recent study that found that
<a
href="https://www.tn8.tv/nacionales/483846-encuesta-53-votaria-fsln-elecciones-nicaragua/">63.5
percent of Nicaraguans</a> will vote for the ruling
Sandinista Front.)</p>
<p>But the almost universal opposition to Piñera and his
right-wing policies has done nothing to stop the US
government and OAS from throwing their full weight of
support behind his administration.</p>
<p>With full-throated backing from Washington, the
billionaire president appears to have all the support he
needs to continue his campaign of repression.</p>
<h3>State-backed bloodshed in Chile</h3>
<p>A February 18 report (<a
href="https://www.indh.cl/bb/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Reporte-de-datos-18-febrero-de-2020.pdf">PDF</a>)
by <a href="https://www.indh.cl/quienes-somos-2/">Chile’s
National Institute of Human Rights</a> (INDH)
illustrates the shocking scope of the Piñera
government’s repression.</p>
<p>The institute was created by Chile’s legislature with a
leadership council appointed by various government
figures, including the president himself, the Senate,
the Chamber of Deputies, and public universities.</p>
<p>Though the INDH is a state-backed institution, it has
endured aggressive intimidation by Chile’s national
police forces, known as the carabineros.</p>
<p>State security forces have at least 14 times threatened
members of INDH, according to the group’s report. The
carabineros have also shot tear gas at the bodies of
INDH observers, wounding three with pellets, and
preventing them from accessing detainees.</p>
<p>INDH’s report accuses the Piñera administration of
carrying out the following grave abuses:</p>
<ul>
<li>arbitrary detentions of people who were peacefully
demonstrating</li>
<li>excessive use of force</li>
<li>aiming at the bodies of protesters and shooting
gases at them</li>
<li>shooting pellets at the body, neck, and face of
protesters</li>
<li>use of tear gas on children and pregnant women</li>
<li>detention of journalists</li>
<li>deploying undercover police and military forces who
did not identify themselves</li>
</ul>
<p>INDH documented security forces’ <a
href="https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2020/02/18/a-4-meses-de-inicio-del-estallido-indh-actualiza-cifras-de-victimas-de-violencia-y-alerta-que-persisten-los-casos-de-lesiones-oculares/">detention
of 10,365 Chileans</a> in just four months of
protests, from October 17, 2019 to February 18, 2020.
That is an average of around 86 detentions per day for
120 days.</p>
<p>The state violence has been extreme. Videos circulating
on social media have shown some protesters being run
over by armored vehicles.</p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The notoriously violent police in
<br>
Chile's brutal right-wing Pinochet-style regime (which
is of course strongly backed by the US) just crushed a
protester in between two armored vehicles.</p>
<p>Warning, this video is terrifying:<a
href="https://t.co/9fuU6Ikgq1">pic.twitter.com/9fuU6Ikgq1</a></p>
<p>— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) <a
href="https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1208228606905856001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December
21, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a conservative estimate, INDH documented 3,765
protest-related wounds in the past four months. Some 282
children were among the injured.</p>
<p>Researchers from the human rights body visited 67
hospitals and health centers to calculate figure.
Because the researchers only counted wounded protesters
whose cases were reported by medical institutions, it
likely is an underestimate of the actual number.</p>
<p>The report itself notes, “It is important to highlight
that this figure does not represent all the people
wounded in this social crisis, rather it only reflects
cases observed and confirmed by the INDH.”</p>
<p>The majority of the wounded protesters, 2,122 people,
or approximately 56 percent, were shot by the state
security forces. Of those, 51 were shot with live
bullets, 190 by large metal balls, and 1,681 by small
metal pellets. (The munitions used in the other 200
shootings were not identified.)</p>
<p>Another 271 protesters were hospitalized from tear gas
injuries.</p>
<figure id="attachment_21133"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-21133"
class="wp-caption"><img data-attachment-id="21133"
data-permalink="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/02/24/chiles-us-backed-shooting-protesters-blinding-maiming-thousands/chile-protests-injuries-graph-national-institute-of-human-rights/"
data-orig-file="https://i1.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Chile-protests-injuries-graph-National-Institute-of-Human-Rights.png?fit=1300%2C1000&ssl=1"
data-orig-size="1300,1000" data-comments-opened="0"
data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}"
data-image-title="Chile protests injuries graph
National Institute of Human Rights"
data-image-description="<p>The source of
injuries of Chilean protesters, according to hospital
cases documented by the National Institute of Human
Rights</p>
"
data-medium-file="https://i1.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Chile-protests-injuries-graph-National-Institute-of-Human-Rights.png?fit=300%2C231&ssl=1"
data-large-file="https://i1.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Chile-protests-injuries-graph-National-Institute-of-Human-Rights.png?fit=845%2C650&ssl=1"
src="https://i1.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Chile-protests-injuries-graph-National-Institute-of-Human-Rights.png?resize=845%2C650&ssl=1"
alt="Chile protests injuries graph National Institute
of Human Rights" width="496" height="381"><figcaption
id="caption-attachment-21133" class="wp-caption-text">The
source of injuries of Chilean protesters, according to
hospital cases documented by the National Institute of
Human Rights</figcaption></figure>
<h3>Shooting hundreds of Chilean protesters in the eyes</h3>
<p>Among the most persistent injury suffered by protesters
in Chile is wounds to the eye.</p>
<p>Chile’s carabineros, or national police, have relied on
riot shotguns that are banned in much of the world as a
form of crowd control, shooting protesters with clusters
of pellets that explode into tiny pieces of shrapnel,
cause grave eye wounds.</p>
<p>The National Institute of Human Rights documented 445
cases of protesters suffering from eye wounds in the
past four months. Many activists have lost partial or
even complete vision in one or both eyes.</p>
<p>In 25 extreme cases, protesters’ eye or eyes completely
burst. And in nine cases, protesters lost an eye
completely; it was removed from their head.</p>
<p>“As the National Institute of Human Rights we are
concerned,” the body said, “that we continue receiving
complaints and observing the existence of eye injuries,
regarding people who were exercising their right to
peacefully protest.”</p>
<p>These eye wounds have become a symbol of the protest
movement in Chile, used in signs, flyers, and memes.</p>
<p>Mon Laferte, a prominent Chilean musician who supports
the demonstrations, circulated the following cartoon
depicting a blind activist telling Piñera, “We’re very
sorry that you can’t see anything, President.”</p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="und"><a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/enchileseviolanlosddhh?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#enchileseviolanlosddhh</a>
<a href="https://t.co/QbQJVnXsJw">pic.twitter.com/QbQJVnXsJw</a></p>
<p>— MON LAFERTE (@monlaferte) <a
href="https://twitter.com/monlaferte/status/1194736553399971841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November
13, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Numerous journalists reporting on the protests in Chile
have suffered from eye injuries and even permanently
lost vision in own or both eyes.</p>
<p>Chilean photojournalist Nicole Kramm was walking with
some friends after dinner when she was shot in the eye
by the police.</p>
<p>Kramm suffered from severe eye trauma, and says she now
sees a hazy black cloud in her left eye. She called it
“something totally criminal and painful.”</p>
<blockquote
data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6zCITupaXE/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading"
data-instgrm-version="12">
</blockquote>
<p>“How long will these crimes against humanity go on?”
she asked. “Yesterday I was the one frightened by the
police brutality as I was interviewing people who lost
vision, today unfortunately it’s my turn.”</p>
<p>The Chilean photojournalist was also injured and nearly
killed when US-backed Venezuelan opposition members
nearly ran her over with an armored troop transport
vehicle during the Trump administration’s attempt to
invade Venezuela with “humanitarian aid” on the
Colombian border in February 2019.</p>
<blockquote
data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B5l_Yehl5Pt/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading"
data-instgrm-version="12">
</blockquote>
<p>Amidst the state repression of anti-austerity protests,
far-right forces in Chile are mobilizing. A network of
extreme-right Pinochet supporters operating out of
Chile’s wealthy neighborhoods was recently exposed for <a
href="https://www.biobiochile.cl/especial/lo-que-debes-saber-hoy/2020/02/19/el-perfil-de-los-formalizados-del-caso-ak-47-pinochetistas-abc1-y-fanaticos-de-las-armas.shtml">trafficking
heavy weapons</a>, including assault rifles.</p>
<h3>Staunch support for repressive Chile from the US and
OAS</h3>
<p>1312 legal cases have been filed in Chile’s justice
system in response to the ongoing state repression.</p>
<p>But with Piñera government firmly in power, with
powerful allies abroad, justice remains elusive.</p>
<p>When Piñera was forced in October to cancel
international conferences that were to be held in Chile,
US Secretary of State and former CIA director Mike
Pompeo said that he understood the decision.</p>
<p>“We applaud the leadership Chile has shown,” Pompeo
said, “and are committed to advancing our shared goals.”</p>
<p>Pompeo made this comment two weeks into the protests in
Chile, while the right-wing government was wounding and
detaining thousands of protesters. Throughout the
violence, the US secretary of state kept quiet.</p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">We understand Chilean President <a
href="https://twitter.com/sebastianpinera?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sebastianpinera</a>’s
decision to cancel <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/APEC?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#APEC</a>
Leaders’ Week and <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COP25?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COP25</a>.
We applaud the leadership <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chile?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chile</a>
has shown throughout <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/APECChile2019?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#APECChile2019</a>
and are committed to advancing our shared goals.</p>
<p>— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) <a
href="https://twitter.com/SecPompeo/status/1189999154673655808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October
31, 2019</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The US embassy in Chile has also maintained total radio
silence on the Piñera government’s violence against
unarmed civilians. Apparently, the embassy is too busy <a
href="https://twitter.com/search?q=venezuela%20from%3AEmbajadaEEUUcl&src=typed_query&f=live">posting
indignant statements condemning Venezuela</a> and
reaffirming support for Trump’s coup puppet Juan Guaidó
to concern itself with the repression taking place right
outside its gates.</p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="es">Estados Unidos adopta medidas
contra funcionarios del exrégimen de Nicolás Maduro
por obstrucción de la Asamblea Nacional de Venezuela.
Traducción de la declaración del Secretario de Estado
Michael Pompeo<a href="https://t.co/Rottnlqfoe">https://t.co/Rottnlqfoe</a></p>
<p>— Embajada EEUU Chile (@EmbajadaEEUUcl) <a
href="https://twitter.com/EmbajadaEEUUcl/status/1217432545291317248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January
15, 2020</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similarly, the Organization of American States (OAS)
and its secretary-general Luis Almagro, a staunch
defender of US military intervention in South America,
have whitewashed Piñera’s repressive right-wing
administration in Chile, while vigorously lobbying for
the overthrow of the democratically elected governments
in Venezuela and Nicaragua.</p>
<p>Almagro praised Piñera in January, hailing “his work to
preserve the public order in the framework of a state of
law and democracy, and measures to guarantee human
rights and the social agenda.”</p>
<p>At no point did Almagro offer a word of criticism.
Instead, he effused, <span>“Chile is an invaluable
partner for work in defending international democratic
institutions, human rights, development, and security.</span></p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="es">Nuestro reconocimiento a <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chile?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chile</a>
por su compromiso con el sistema interamericano, por
promover una agenda de principios dentro de la <a
href="https://twitter.com/OEA_oficial?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OEA_oficial</a>.
Chile es un socio invalorable para el trabajo en
defensa de las instituciones democráticas, los DDHH,
desarrollo y seguridad <a
href="https://t.co/iPzFdUppTZ">pic.twitter.com/iPzFdUppTZ</a></p>
<p>— Luis Almagro (@Almagro_OEA2015) <a
href="https://twitter.com/Almagro_OEA2015/status/1215405510079414272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January
9, 2020</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the US and OAS turn a blind eye to the rampage of
Piñera’s carabineros, Chileans are losing their own by
the hundreds.</p>
<div itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemscope=""
itemprop="author">
<p><br>
</p>
<div>
<p>Ben Norton is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker.
He is the assistant editor of The Grayzone, and the
producer of the <a
href="http://moderaterebelsradio.com/">Moderate
Rebels</a> podcast, which he co-hosts with editor
Max Blumenthal. His website is <a
href="http://bennorton.com/">BenNorton.com</a> and
he tweets at @<a
href="https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton">BenjaminNorton</a>.</p>
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