The judicial persecution of the Chilean popular uprising of October 2019: figures, patterns and projection

Abstract

This paper examined the criminal proceedings stemming from the Chilean uprising of October 2019, using official figures from the Attorney General's Office (2025) and data from the National Institute for Human Rights. Of the 32,901 cases related to this period, 11,506, that is 34.1% involved institutional violence. However, only 958 cases identified a suspected perpetrator, and only 219 resulted in a conviction, that is 1.9%. More than 90% of these investigations were concluded, but only 4% reached a judicial resolution, with provisional dismissals and decisions not to proceed being the most common outcomes. The contrast with crimes attributed to private individuals is significant, as conviction rates exceed 80% in several cases brought to court. This asymmetry revealed a pattern of differentiated criminal prosecution, where the system is highly effective against protesters but less so against state agents. The study identified several critical structural problems that suggest a form of structural impunity has taken hold, reinforced by legal reforms such as Law 21.560, the Naín Retamal Law. It was projected that a far-right government could exacerbate these trends by expanding the coercive apparatus, eroding human rights standards, and consolidating a legal framework that favors permanent exceptionalism, posing substantial risks to the rule of law.