Our team was on location in Santiago to witness a student protest against the country’s controversial new policing bill.

On April 12, students in Santiago took to the streets to protest the Nain Retamal Law. The controversial legislation, which was published in Chile’s Official Gazette on Monday 10 April after an accelerated legislative process, grants additional protections to law enforcement officers who use their service weapons in the line of duty.

The law, which was hastily approved following the death of major petty officer Daniel Palma; the third policeman to have died in the line of service in the last month, also increased the penalties for crimes against members of the Carabineros, Investigative Police and Gendarmerie. It has been described as “a huge setback in terms of human rights” by executive director of Amnesty International Chile, Rodrigo Bustos.  

During the demonstration, Santiago police could be seen utilising water cannons on the gathered protesters, many of whom were high school students. The demonstrators responded by throwing projectiles at the police officers on the scene.

Here is how our team in the newsroom validated the footage we received from these tensions in the Chilean capital.