Chile police chief resigns after officers shoot adolescents
Chile's police chief resigned Thursday after officers shot two minors in an incident that sparked outrage across a country already alarmed at heavy handed security force tactics during months of social protests.
President Sebastián Piñera said in a statement he had accepted the resignation of Mario Rozas, saying he shared "the reasons and arguments" he had given for resigning.
Chile's leftist opposition had for months called on Rozas, who was head of the Carabineros military police, to resign following criticism from the UN human rights office and other organizations over police repression of the social protests.
Police officers on Wednesday shot and wounded two minors, aged 17 and 14, at a residence for troubled children and adolescents in the southern city of Talcahuano.
Children's Ombudsman Patricia Muñoz denounced the police for using firearms "in an absolutely unjustified and excessive manner."
At: https://www.ibtimes.com/chile-police-chief-resigns-after-officers-shoot-adolescents-3085548
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera and his now former Carabineros (military police) Chief Mario Rozas.
The Carabineros' November 18th shooting of two teens was the final straw in Rozas' controversial tenure, noted for a policy of deliberately aiming for protesters' eyes - blinding over 400 amid constitutional reform demonstrations in late 2019.
Opponents are demanding Piñera disband the Carabineros, which had already gained notoriety for human rights abuses during the Pinochet dictatorship and its violent crackdown on protests afterward.
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i.e. essentially shock troops to use against protesters and other opponents.
Ironically, the officers themselves sabotaged any such moves toward a Gestapo-like force - by the very abuses they committed.
It took the murders of Santiago Maldonado and Rafael Nahuel in 2017 (and the brazen cover-ups) to scuttle Bullrich's plans in Argentina.
Chileans have apparently come to the same point with their Carabineros.
Former Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich and Gendarmerie officers, in 2017.
Scenes like this - and her clownish attempts to cover up two illegal Gendarmerie killings - led to calls for investigations and reforms at Gendarmerie, long known for harboring far-right elements. Little progress has been made thus far.
Similar problems exist with militarized police bodies throughout Latin America.
The torture and assassination of Santiago Maldonado, then the deceitful terrorism which followed in the cover-up, to send a message to terrorize others who might consider protest were savage and remorseless, as intended.
Looked for more of the information on Rafael Nahuel, found this article written in Spanish which is painful to read:
Death of Rafael Nahuel: Prefecture fired at least 114 times and there are five agents under suspicion
By Fernando Soriano
March 22, 2018
fsoriano@infobae.com
Rafael Nahuel was 21 years old
After learning that there were no traces of gunpowder in the hands of the young Mapuche Rafael Nahuel , who died in Bariloche during an operation by the " Albatros " group of the Naval Prefecture last November, the federal Justice now aims to investigate the role played by some of the 20 agents of the national security force who participated in the event.
According to what appears in different documents incorporated into the file, and according to the expert opinions made by the Bariloche Atomic Center on the hands of the agents, five of the eight prefects who entered the Mapuche property shot at least 114 times in the episode that occurred. in Villa Mascardi on November 25, for which the 21-year-old boy was killed.
Two of these agents, whose identities were not revealed, fired 40 and 30 times their MP5 machine guns or Beretta pistols, all 9 mm caliber. Suspicion would be closed over them as to who shot Nahuel and why he did it, if he was on his back and unarmed . This result will emerge from the expertise made based on the Automated Ballistic Identification System used by the Federal Police to compare the striations of a projectile or a casing in relation to the weapon that fired it.
Twenty weapons from the prefects involved in the operation will be checked. This study began a month ago and will determine the identity of the prefect or prefects who shot when Nahuel was already turning his back on them . It is assumed that with these results, Judge Villanueva could charge them with a crime and summon them to an investigatory statement.
The Materials Characterization Department, belonging to the Applied Research Management of the Bariloche Atomic Center, analyzed traces of gunpowder in eight prefects involved, in Rafael Nahuel (sample NIR 1466) and also in Lautaro González and Fausto Jones Huala , the latter, brother of the lonko Facundo , detained in Esquel.
In the documents sent to the federal court of Bariloche, which Gustavo Villanueva subrogates , the Atomic Center reported that the result was positive in the " Albatross " cases and also those of González and Jones Huala . For the dermotest to be positive, three elements have to be found simultaneously in the electronic scans on carbon ribbons: barium, lead and antimony .
In principle, the suspicion on González and Jones Huala is established , who from this analysis it is believed that they could have fired. That would confirm the version given by the prefects, who after Nahuel's death assured that they had responded to an attack by the Mapuches.
However, there are in principle mitigating factors. The particles that tested positive for all three elements simultaneously are very few in relation to the same analysis on the prefects. In addition, no casings, weapons or traces of the shots that these two members of the Lafken Wincul Mapu Mapuche community from Lake Mascardi have been found have been found so far.
"They could have been contaminated by being in contact with Rafael's bullet hole," said a source with access to the case. González and Jones Huala are the ones who brought the injured young man down from the mountain to Route 40.
Other sources specialized in these analyzes commented to this medium that if the elements appeared simultaneously, even if they were not many particles, it is highly probable that they had used some type of firearm. Some weapons, such as .22 or .38 revolvers, do not eject the casing.
Judge Villanueva derived the results provided by the Bariloche Atomic Center to experts from the Salta Public Ministry, who will analyze the evidence to confirm and determine if there were shots. If confirmed, the magistrate could also charge the two Mapuches and, as in the case of the prefects, even request their arrest.
" We want to find the person who killed Rafael from behind ," the defense attorney for the young man's family, Julieta Wallace , told Infobae . For her, the prefect who killed him committed the crime of qualified murder. "The non-presence of the elements that constitute the gunpowder indicate that Rafael did not fire , and that the bullet that caused his death was fired by a security force. The security forces have a different responsibility from other people in relation to carrying of firearms, "remarked Wallace.
https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/policiales/2018/03/22/muerte-de-rafael-nahuel-prefectura-disparo-al-menos-114-veces-y-hay-cinco-agentes-bajo-sospecha/
(Computer translations are always rocky, but the story which still comes through his horrendous.)
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Hoping enough time will pass before another fascist like Macri can start trying to load up his administration for another dictatorship enforced through terrorism and violence. Bullrich seemed to relish her job with him, although she had to disable her conscience with booze to keep it dormant.
Thank you for the information.
