LISTEN TO ARTICLE 6:54 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post Email

Dozens of Chileans have been partially blinded by rubber projectiles and gas canisters that police and soldiers fired into crowds of protesters -- maimings that threaten to destroy what little common ground is left in a nation racked by the worst civil unrest in a generation.

More than 140 people have suffered eye injuries since protests started Oct. 18, human-rights advocates say. At least 26 have completely lost vision in one eye, according to the Salvador Hospital ophthalmology unit in Santiago, and many others still are being treated. The toll far exceeds similar injuries in recent protests in Hong Kong, Spain, Lebanon and France, and has prompted investigations by the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and advocacy groups.

“Last Monday, we got 10 people with these wounds in one hour, and after that they just kept coming,” said Mauricio Lopez, a unit doctor. “It was unbelievable. Nothing like that has ever happened in the history of eye medicine in Chile.”

Injured protesters; Jose Soto, Diego Villegas, Edgardo Navararro, Antonio Morales, Vika, and Benton Cannavaro. Photographer: Tamara Merino/Bloomberg

Demonstrations prompted by a 30-peso (4 cent) increase in subway fares quickly evolved into massive protests demanding changes in health care, education, pensions and even the constitution. Outbreaks of violence, arson and looting prompted President Sebastian Pinera to declare an emergency and call the army into the streets. So far, at least 19 people have been killed and more than a thousand wounded. Allegations of torture and sexual violence could become an insuperable obstacle for Pinera, who must broker peace with the opposition before he can continue his program of market-based reforms.

How Chile Went From an Economic Star to an Angry Mess: QuickTake

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also are examining the actions of security forces. “Allegations of human-rights violations have opened Pandora’s box,” said Claudio Fuentes, a political scientist and professor at Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago.

The protests, which are largely peaceful, have drawn as many as a million people for a single march. Soldiers and police have struggled to contain them and have sometimes met demonstrators with violence.

On Oct. 20, Jose Soto was chanting antigovernment slogans on Santiago’s main avenue when officers charged.

“I saw some policemen loading their weapons,” the 23-year-old electrician said Tuesday. “Suddenly I felt a strong blow on my nose. It was so quick. I couldn’t see anything with my right eye, and when I touched it, my hand was full of blood.”

Riot police fire tear gas during a protest in Santiago, on Oct. 21. Photographer: Cristobal Olivares/Bloomberg

A 9-millimeter rubber ball -- a standard projectile for Chilean riot forces -- had blown through his right eyeball before hitting his nose. “Doctors told me I could have lost both eyes if my head had been in a different position,” said Soto, who was among about a dozen people waiting to be seen at the Salvador Hospital.

Last week, the wounded lay in corridors and even inside visiting rooms waiting for aid. At one point 15 ambulances waited outside to unload victims. Doctors operated around the clock.

Protests continue and patients arrive at the rate of 12 a day, said ophthalmologist Patricio Meza, who is vice president of Chile’s medical association.

Rubber balls like the ones surgeons have been pulling out of faces and eyes aren’t meant to be shot directly at people but “skip-fired” 6 to 10 feet in front of a target, said Charles “Sid” Heal, a retired Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department commander who teaches riot-control techniques around the world. The projectiles are meant to hurt without penetrating skin.

“If you put someone’s eye out, that far exceeds what we would consider reasonable force,” Heal said.

Dodging Tear Gas and Debt, a Poor Family Struggles in Santiago

Pinera, a billionaire who opponents say has little empathy for Chile’s poor and middle class, has showered praise on security forces but said attacks on citizens are repugnant.

“Violence shouldn’t ever be accepted in a democratic society,” Pinera said in a speech on Oct. 28 announcing a cabinet reshuffling. “We need to modernize and strengthen our democratic institutions and modernize and strengthen our systems of intelligence and public security.”

Still protesters returned to the streets, and the morning after his speech at least five people with severe eye injuries turned up at the hospital.

A mother comforts her child injured during a protest at El Salvador Hospital. Photographer: Tamara Merino/Bloomberg

Among them was 22-year-old Diego Villegas. On Oct. 19, the engineering student had been demonstrating for fewer than five minutes in Puente Alto, a working-class neighborhood, when a rubber pellet with a lead core hit him in the eye.

“I’ve had two operations and doctors still haven’t managed to pull it out, so I’m here waiting to see when they can operate for a third time,” he said. His eyelid was stitched shut to avoid infection.

Chile’s National Institute of Human Rights -- which has observers in hospitals and police stations and at demonstrations across the Andean nation -- has recorded 1,233 people in hospitals who have been wounded, 37 with gunshot wounds. The group is filing 138 legal cases, lodging accusations that include five homicides by police or soldiers, 18 cases of sexual violence and 92 cases of torture. Three of the institute’s own observers have been injured during the demonstrations.

About 800 policemen have been wounded during the unrest, according to a video posted on the police’s Twitter account on Tuesday. Of the close to 700 policemen wounded during the first week of protests, 55 suffered serious injuries, the police said on Twitter on Oct. 26.

“This is an unprecedented situation,” said Yerko Ljubetic, a human rights institute board member. “We have filed more charges for torture in 10 days of protests than in all of 2018. And we know there’s a lack of reporting in cases of torture, especially if there’s sexual violence involved.”

One victim, a male medical student, came forward to say that he was arrested, taken to a police station, beaten and sexually abused. Such accounts have outraged the public to the point that opposition lawmakers filed Chile’s first impeachment motion against Pinera. While the measure has little chance of progressing, it has reset the political discussion.

“The impeachment accusation will pollute the debate and prevent any economic or social reforms from being passed,” said Fuentes, the professor.

Pinera, who initially said the protests meant Chile was “at war,” later apologized and announced a $1.2 billion package of spending that includes money for pensions and a guaranteed minimum income.

Chile’s days of rage feel like a turning point that some compare to the 1988 plebiscite that ended the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Protesters in Santiago, on Oct. 23. Photographer: Cristobal Olivares/Bloomberg

“One of the democracy’s big promises is that things that happened during the dictatorship would not happen again,” Ljubetic said. “Young people already feel detached from the system because they think it’s unequal and corrupt. What is happening these days will contribute to that feeling and will last for years.”

At the Salvador Hospital on Tuesday, an older man stood to summon a round of applause and cheering for the young people who lost their eyes. Indifferent to the noise, nurses and doctors rushed from one room to another in a swift attempt at triage.

“Doctors tell me I need to take care of myself now because recovery will be slow, but I’m still going to the protests when I feel strong,” Soto said. “I still have one eye left, and I plan to keep using it until something changes.”

— With assistance by Philip Sanders

( Adds police injuries in the 20th paragraph. )