Unrest has led to thousands of arrests and hundreds of injuries, prompting action by former president turned UN high commissioner

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

The UN high commission on human rights is sending a team to Chile to investigate allegations of human rights abuses against demonstrators, amid a swell of furious street protests over inequality, falling wages and the rising cost of education and healthcare.

“Having monitored the crisis from the beginning I have decided to send a verification mission to examine reports of human rights violations in Chile,” the high commissioner and former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet announced on Twitter.

Michelle Bachelet (@mbachelet) Having monitored the crisis in #Chile since it began, I have decided to send a verification mission to examine the allegations of #HumanRights violations. Parliamentarians and the Government have both expressed a desire for a @UNHumanRights mission.

This week, Bachelet said she was “deeply disturbed and saddened to see violence, destruction, deaths and injuries in Chile”.

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Since the unrest erupted on 19 October, the military and Carabineros police forces have made 2,410 arrests throughout the country – 200 of which involved minors – and 535 people have been injured, according to Chile’s human rights commission, INDH.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest An anti-government protester stands in front of burning barricades in Valparaiso, Chile, on Thursday. Photograph: Matias Delacroix/AP

At least 18 people have died in the violence.

The INDH confirmed that it was compiling 55 legal cases related to five homicides and eight instances of sexual violence involving both police and military agents, which will be investigated by Chile’s public prosecution service.

A special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate alleged human rights violations in 13 districts of Santiago.

Since a student protest over subway prices swelled into a nationwide movement against the government, vast peaceful demonstrations have taken place throughout the country.

But the government’s response has largely focused on efforts to contain outbreaks of violence and looting.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Security forces aim their weapons during a protest in Santiago. Photograph: Henry Romero/Reuters

Chile’s centre-right president, Sebastián Piñera, has come under intense criticism for his response to the unrest, after he appeared on television – flanked by military commanders – and announced that Chile was “at war with a violent enemy”.

Piñera declared a state of emergency in much of the country, declaring night-time curfews and deploying tanks and troops to quell the worst unrest Chile has faced since the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.

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The president later changed tack, scrapping subway charge increases and deferring a 9.2% increase in electricity tariffs. But the moves have failed to appease protesters, who have continued to pour on to the streets demanding profound change to how the country functions and is governed.

Fresh clashes broke out on Thursday as stone-throwing protesters did battle with police firing teargas and water cannons in Santiago, and the port city of Valparaiso, as hundreds of demonstrators gathered in city squares around the country.

The human rights arm of the Organization of American States, a pan-regional forum, has also announced that it will convene in Ecuador on 11 November to discuss the alleged violations and has asked both the public and Chilean government to provide evidence.