Less-lethal weapons: ocular trauma in Chile as psychosocial trauma. Challenges from a human rights and comprehensive perspective.

Abstract

In October 2019 in Chile, massive protests broke out in the so-called social uprising. The repressive response of the armed forces and Carabineros (Police) resulted in serious and mas-sive violations of human rights, with between 400 and 500 victims of ocular trauma caused mainly by shots from anti-riot shotguns, constituting the largest number of cases in the world linked to a single event. It is proposed to evaluate the different dimensions of the impact of ocular trauma due to state violence, using the concept of psychosocial trauma and a support model that integrates the medical-psychological and social dimensions. Human rights violations of the period are described, focusing on cases of ocular trauma, and state and civil society responses. The requests of a survivors' organisations regarding truth, justice and reparation is presented. A clinical case of ocular trauma treated in our centre is analyzed. Survivors of ocular trauma manifest post-traumatic reactions regardless of the severity of their ocular injuries. The impact on the mental health of survi-vors of ocular trauma due to state violence is a phenomenon where the psychic and psychosocial im-pact of trauma due to socio-political violence intersects with the short- and long-term mental health effects. The impact of sociopolitical trauma must be understood considering both the in-dividual and social subject, considering their cultural, socioeconomic and political reality. Recovery from traumatic psychological injury must be addressed in its medical, sensory rehabilitation, psycho-logical and psychosocial dimensions, including processes of social recognition, search for justice and comprehensive reparation of damage. In contexts of impunity, a model is proposed that integrates rehabilitation with psycho-legal support, promotion of agency and organisation, within the frame-work of commitment to the movement and principles of human rights.