MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean Army members to stay in jail for homicide during 2019 uprising

A Chilean court Wednesday upheld a decision to keep an Army captain and two other military officers under preventive detention measures for the death of Ecuadorian student Romario Veloz during the 2019 social uprisings.

After three days of hearing, the Guarantee Court of La Serena established the precautionary measure against Army Captain José Faúndez Sepúlveda and his subordinates Carlos Robledo Olguín and José Arenas Mancilla.

The three soldiers were charged with homicide, frustrated homicide, unnecessary violence and injuries in the Veloz case in October 2019.

The court also ordered Army officer Milován Rojas Barrera stayed under house arrest.

The events took place Oct. 20, 2019, when Romario Veloz participated in a mobilization in the streets of La Serena, 500 kilometers north of Santiago, which was crushed by Army repression.

According to Prosecutor Adrián Vega, Captain Faúndez ordered the group under his command to open fire, due to which Rolando Robledo was wounded in the abdomen. Faúndez then ordered a second burst of shots, which resulted in the killing of Romario Veloz, one of the more than thirty people killed during the demonstrations that broke out in Chile in 2019.

“Today they finally sent my son's murderer to jail. I am more than happy, we have accomplished quite a bit,” said the victim's mother, Mery Cortez.

According to the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH), there were over 3,000 complaints filed against state agents but only four convictions two years after the start of the social crisis.