The NGO Amnesty International included the case of the Chilean Renzo Inostroza, victim of an eye injury in the context of the social outbreak of 2019, in its traditional campaign “Write for Rights”, which commemorates Human Rights Day, on December 10.
“Renzo’s case shows the institutional violence unleashed on the population during the social outbreak in Chile. His testimony moves us and from Amnesty International we invite the public to meet him and offer him their support,” said the executive director of Amnesty International Chile, Rodrigo Bustos, through a statement.
Renzo was 24 years old on October 21, 2019 when, according to the organization, a police officer without provocation began to kick his friend in the back in the commune of La Cisterna.
“Renzo began to record what was happening, however, in a few moments it was he who became the victim. After several shots from the police, 19 pellets hit his face and body. The young man almost completely lost vision in one eye and was left with multiple injuries,” the statement added.
The campaign also includes cases such as that of Yren and Mariana, trans activists from Paraguay, who have been harassed and physically assaulted in a country where trans people cannot legally change their names or obtain identity documents that match their gender identity, among other discriminatory practices.
“In the framework of Human Rights Day, we invite people to act for other people who are being violated, because words have power,” Bustos said.
The cases selected to support this year are marked by the right to protest, “because with few exceptions, the wave of social mobilizations that has arisen in recent times has met with obstructive, repressive and frequently violent responses from state authorities,” indicates the NGO.
“People who go out to protest in demand of the environmental crisis, growing inequality, systemic racism and gender violence, among other causes, are at continuous risk,” he adds.
The social outbreak of 2019 was the largest wave of protests in Chile since the end of the military dictatorship, with some thirty deaths, thousands of injuries -more than 400 of them due to eye injuries- and accusations against the security forces for violations of human rights.
According to Amnesty International, since the start of the campaign, which collects signatures and expressions of solidarity that are sent to authorities and victims, respectively, more than 100 people have been freed from torture, harassment or unfair imprisonment.
The origin of “Write for Rights” goes back to the year 2001, when a group of friends from Warsaw (Poland) decided to commemorate Human Rights Day with a letter-a-thon. During 24 hours they wrote more than 2,000 letters in favor of people whose fundamental rights were being seriously violated.
