"Among them was Gustavo Gatica, a 21-year-old psychology student at the University of Chile, who threw a stone towards the police and stooped to pick up another. The last thing he saw was a line of advancing officers in the shadow of a tower block. As he straightened up, he was hit in the face by two rubber-coated bullets fired by Lt Col Claudio Crespo. After nearly two weeks of surgeries, doctors could not save Gatica's eyesight."
"After a 14-month trial, a Santiago court delivered its unanimous verdict last month that Crespo shot and blinded Gatica but absolved him of any wrongdoing, invoking the principle of legitimate defence. I am not happy with the outcome, Gatica told the media outside the courthouse. I think that it is relevant for the good of democracy that these cases do not result in impunity."
"But the verdict has already raised fears that a precedent has been set for heavy-handed policing, as Chile preparing to inaugurate its most conservative president since Gen Augusto Pinochet the far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast, who takes power in March. This doesn't just affect Gatica, his family and those close to him; it sends the signal that when these acts are perpetrated, nothing will happen and that this will be legitimised by the justice system,"
On 8 November 2019, protests in Santiago's Plaza Italia saw clashes between riot police and demonstrators. Gustavo Gatica, a 21-year-old University of Chile psychology student, was struck in the face by two rubber-coated bullets fired by Lt Col Claudio Crespo and subsequently lost his eyesight despite surgeries. After a 14-month trial, a court found that Crespo shot and blinded Gatica but absolved him on grounds of legitimate defence. Gatica plans to appeal and raise the case in congress. The verdict provoked public outrage, social-media mockery by Crespo, and fears of judicially sanctioned impunity ahead of a conservative presidential inauguration.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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