They are marking us

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460 people have been seriously injured in their eyes, 34 of whom suffered total loss due to the indiscriminate use of pellets and tear gas bombs by the Carabineros de Chile special forces. The Carabineros fired their rubber bullets and tear gas guns directly into the faces of the protesters during the Chilean social outbreak between late 2019 and early 2020. This figure has made Chile the country with the world record for eye mutilation by state and security forces.

The Chilean rebellion began on October 18th, 2019. The trigger was a 4.1% increase in the subway fare ($30 CLP = $0.039 USD). This provoked massive evasions from the subway, at first by high school students, but later generalized and spread throughout the country. This discontent led to one of the largest social uprisings in recent decades: on October 25th, the most massive protest on record since the end of the Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship took place, after than more than a million people took to the streets to demand social changes.

The demands are diverse and are still active: change in the pension system, increase of the minimum wage, better public health, a new Constitution and the resignation of President Sebastián Piñera. In response to the protests, the president declared a State of Emergency during the first days of the rebellion, which led to the suspension of basic freedoms, including free movement. Curfews were imposed for the first time since the dictatorship and the strong police repression on the protestors has been historical.

By early March 2020, around 3,838 people had been injured and according to the Chilean Society of Ophthalmologists and human rights organizations, 460 of them ended up with serious eye complications, loss of the eyeball, and also loss of sight. This figure has made Chile a world record for eye mutilation, due to the indiscriminate use of pellets and tear gas bombs by special forces of the Carabineros, who have shot their weapons directly into the faces of the protesters.

Carlos Puebla (46) Metal Worker
Lives in Renca, Santiago
Carlos was hit by a pellet on October 24th, 2019 in Plaza Italia, Santiago. His diagnosis was an eye burst with total loss of his right eye.

“I look at the mirror and I look at my new self now, and I say “I am mutilated.”
I hope with the prosthesis I can return to be a normal person again, so when I look at the mirror or when I talk to somebody, I can feel like a normal person. Although I will not see them with my right eye, they are going to look at me and see me as a normal person.”
Camilo Galvez (24)
Sound technician
Lives in Puente Alto,Santiago
Camilo was hit by a pellet that lodged into his right eye on November 15th, 2019, near the Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago. His diagnosis was an eye burst with total loss of the right eye and fracture.
“I lost an eye not because I had an accident, but because somebody shot me on purpose to mutilate me, and that is pretty hard. To think and reflect about this is very abysmal, it generates a lot of fear. When they shoot our eyes one becomes marked, it is their way of marking us, and leaves us with a psychological trauma beyond the physical mutilation.”
X-ray showing the pellet embedded in the skull of Ybar Soto (29) Ybar was hit by a pellet that lodged in his right eye on October 24, 2019 in Plaza Italia. Santiago. His diagnosis was ocular burst. Santiago, Chile. December 28, 2019
Nelson Iturriaga (44)Construction site supervisor and painter
Lives in Recoleta,Santiago
Nelson was hit by a pellet that lodged in his right eye on October 21th, 2019 in Plaza Italia, Santiago. His prognosis is still uncertain.
“I sincerely thought they shot me with a fire arm, the fear of dying was so big. It was something so bad, that in that precise moment I remembered my whole life since I went to kinder garden, to elementary and high school in one second. Imagine that. I traveled 40 years in time, from my childhood to nowadays at my present job, you know what I mean? It’s a crazy thing. That life can pass you in a second.”
Natalia Aravena (25)
Nurse
Lives in Peñalolén,Santiago
Natalia was hit by a tear gas bomb on October 28th, 2019, near the Palacio de La Moneda in Santiago. Her diagnosis was an ocular explosion with total loss of the right eye.
“In the moment I lost my eye, I lost something very important to me, because it was a part of me that I always liked. Many times, in my life people have told me that something they really liked about me were my eyes. They said I had a deep stare, big eyes, almonds shaped eyes. They have named different characteristics of my eyes, and I’ve always liked them. In my right eye I had a beauty mark, and it was unique because nobody had a beauty mark in their eyes, but I did.”
Daniel Acevedo(34)
Advertising Installer
Lives in Pedro Aguirre Cerda,Santiago
Daniel was hit by a tear gas bomb on November 12th, 2019 in Alameda Avenue, near Plaza Italia, Santiago. Daniel suffered an ocular explosion of his left eye and a nasal fracture.

“It is like when you pop a fried egg, that is how my eye popped and I lost it completely. Nobody wanted to tell me that I had lost my eye, but I knew it, and I said “I lost it, I lost it.” I did not take it that bad. It is lost, it was bad luck. I can’t beat myself down, it is not worth it.
I have an 11 years old daughter, I can’t become depressed. So here I am trying to come back to normality and getting used to see with just one eye.”
X ray showing the embedded pellet of an injured man during Santiago protests.
Nahuel Herane (17) Student
Lives in Estación Central,Santiago
Nahuel received the impact of a pellet in his left eye on December 20th in Villa Portales, Santiago. His diagnosis was a total loss of his left eye.
“I don’t know if I have any after-effects, I have not been deprived of anything. I still have one eye, I can do everything, I have my two arms and legs and I have one eye. So, I can still do everything and perhaps the consequences are to live trying to get accustomed to the lack of visual field. it is what my uncle and the doctors said. We have less visual field and less three-dimensional view, but nothing else than that. It does not affect me very much, it is just one eye less.”
José Soto (23) Electrical Technician.Lives in Cerro Navia,Santiago
José received an impact on his right eye on October 21th near Plaza Italia in Santiago. His diagnosis was an eye burst with total loss of the right eye.
“I used to like sketching a lot, but now when I’m drawing and hold the pen, I don’t have the depth I need to draw and that makes me feel angry because I am not the person I used to be. Or if I wanted to touch somebody, I missed them, so I had to get closer or when I am walking I run into people on my right side simply because I can’t see well. It tires me to turn my head and neck to try to see who is coming by and not to run into them. This is what frustrates and upsets me the most.”
Maite Castillo(23)
Dental Technician.Lives in El Bosque,Santiago.
Maite was hit by a pellet in Gran Avenida, El Bosque municipality on October 20th, 2019.

“The last thing I saw was the policeman who shot me, and that is the saddest thing of all,
that it’s really lame that he was the last thing I saw.”
X ray showing the embedded pellet of Camilo Galvez (24) injured by chilean police during Santiago protests.
Manuel Véliz(21)
Construction worker
Lives in Cerro Navia, Santiago
Manuel was hit by a pellet on November 15th, 2019, near the Universidad de Chile metro station in Santiago. His diagnosis was an eye burst with total loss of the right eye.
“I started going to the protests when I heard about the first young man who lost both eyes, Gustavo. On Friday, 15th of November it happened to me. This is the day I will never forget. They took my eye, but they did not take away my will to live.”
Ybar Soto (29)
Electrical Technician
Lives in Puente Alto,Santiago
Ybar was hit by a pellet that lodged in his right eye on October 24th, 2019, at Plaza Italia, Santiago. His diagnosis was an eye burst.
“If I would have shot the police in his eye, would they have me to signing once a month?

I’ve had to face really hard situations, situations where I have seen the police looking at my face and laughing at me, because of the damage they did in my eye. What can I do against that? I can’t do anything. This is a huge anger and pain that is going to weigh me down my whole life.

Until now I have the same answer. I do not regret for a fucking second going to protest that day because I am totally and absolutely convinced that we were not doing anything wrong.
These are our rights.”
X-ray of Fabiola Campillai's face after she received a direct hit from a tear gas bomb fired by the carabineros chilean police, that caused her to lose both eyes.