MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Sixty deputies ask Kast to pardon officers convicted over the 2019 unrest

Kast wrote that Crespo had been cleared of all charges and that it was confirmed he acted in self-defense, a reading of the ruling that is the president's own

Sixty Chilean deputies asked President José Antonio Kast on Wednesday to grant individual pardons to members of the Carabineros police force and the armed forces convicted over acts linked to their duties during the protests that began on October 18, 2019.

The letter is signed by lawmakers from the Republican Party, founded by the president, and from the Independent Democratic Union, National Renewal and Evópoli, along with the National Libertarian Party and the Party of the People. The request does not identify specific cases. It argues that Chile faced one of the most complex crises in its recent history and that thousands of personnel were deployed to protect citizens, maintain public order and defend critical infrastructure. “This request does not seek to disregard the importance of human rights or the individual responsibility that the courts are to determine,” the text adds.

In July, Republican deputies had identified twelve priority cases, eight former police officers and four former soldiers. The National Libertarian Party is also promoting a general pardon bill that would extend to civilians.

A day earlier, the Chamber of Deputies approved, by 73 votes to 51 with 16 abstentions, a resolution explicitly seeking a pardon for Patricio Maturana, a former police officer sentenced to 12 years and 183 days for unlawful coercion causing grievous injury. Maturana fired the tear gas canister that blinded Fabiola Campillai, now an independent senator.

An individual pardon is a presidential power that extinguishes or commutes a sentence, but does not annul the conviction or the responsibility established by the courts.

Victims' organizations and relatives have demonstrated outside La Moneda against the prospect. Campillai has said sentences are meant to be served and that a state that pardons abandons its victims.

Kast took office on March 11 and said at the outset that he would assess cases individually. During the campaign he had said he would never pardon criminals and criticized the pardons granted by his predecessor, Gabriel Boric, to twelve people convicted over the unrest in December 2022. Before taking office he described the protests as a criminal outbreak.

On Tuesday, the president welcomed on the social network X the judicial confirmation of the acquittal of former officer Claudio Crespo, accused of blinding Gustavo Gatica, then a psychology student and now a deputy. Kast wrote that Crespo had been cleared of all charges and that it was confirmed he acted in self-defense, a reading of the ruling that is the president's own. Gatica lost the sight of both eyes.

The October 2019 protests were the largest mobilization since the end of the 1973-1990 dictatorship. They began over a rise in metro fares and grew into a broad demand against inequality, combining mass marches with episodes of violence, looting and destruction. International bodies documented widespread human rights violations by security forces. The events left around thirty dead and thousands injured, including more than 450 victims of eye trauma, according to prosecutors.