On September 12, after an act in homage to the victims of the 1973 coup d’état, the police used illegal force to arrest the students, who were outside the Javiera Carrera high school in downtown Santiago.

According to the INDH, four of them received irritating sprays to the face and some were also dragged. The fifth victim suffered two shots from a water cannon that caused her to fall down and was also hit by a tear gas grenade, as a result of which she had taken to an emergency hospital, and suffers from a cervical contusion, among other after-effects.

In light of these events, described as disproportionate violence, the INDH headquarters in the Metropolitan Region filed an appeal before the Seventh Guarantee Court of Santiago for the crime of unlawful coercion. “The events described in the complaint reveal a procedure in which there was an absolutely unjustified, disproportionate of any permitted use of force,” said the regional head of the INDH, Beatriz Contreras.

The INDH complaint was joined by a formal one filed by 17 deputies before the director of Carabineros, Ricardo Yáñez, and the Ministry of the Interior, where they request that measures be taken for these acts, which constitute serious violations of the human rights of the adolescents.

The legislators urge that exhaustive investigations be carried out and that those responsible for the excessive use of force be sanctioned. In addition, they request that the Ministry of the Interior take action in the matter to ensure that these events are not repeated and that the rights of any person to participate in peaceful demonstrations are respected.

“It is intolerable that excessive repression continues to be allowed, especially when the victims are teenagers exercising their right to protest,” said Congresswoman Carmen Hertz.

Educational authorities, teachers and workers of the students’ school expressed their deep concern and rejection of the violent and excessive intervention of the police that affected the educational community.

jrr/llp/lam/car