Chile security forces' crackdown leaves toll of death and broken bodies
At least 23 people
have been killed in anti-government protests and 2,300 injured, with scores
blinded by non-lethal projectiles. Hastily cramming spare
clothes into his rucksack, Romario Veloz left his mother’s home in the Chilean
beach city of La Serena on the afternoon of 20 October to attend his first ever
protest. Days earlier, the
first sparks of what would become a firestorm of unrest had broken out in the
South American country, as thousands
of people took to the streets to demonstrate against political
exclusion and economic inequality.
A student of civil
engineering and freestyle rapper, Veloz, 26, was born in Ecuador, but had moved
to Chile with
his mother when he was nine. He told his family that he was going to protest so
that his daughter Maite, five, could grow up in a fairer society. But as the crowd
neared the city’s bus station, Veloz was struck by a soldier’s bullet, and
according witnesses, never regained consciousness. He was pronounced dead that
evening. Two other protesters were also injured that afternoon....
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/25/chile-protester-killed-mother-army-police-romario-veloz
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