Chile Capital Pride Parade Disrupted by Violent Attack

A group of hooded individuals attacked members of the annual Pride parade in Santiago, Chile. On June 29, the aggressors converged on a truck leading the parade and began to assault Chilean LGBTQ+ activists and damage their vehicle.

Wearing hoodies, the group approached a security fence surrounding a truck at the beginning of the parade. They started to tear down the fence before breaking one of the truck’s headlights and punching and kicking the people on the truck as well as other parade participants. They also reportedly threw stones and dumped paint to vandalize parade floats and threatened individuals with a skateboard as a weapon. The activists responded peacefully and tried to convince them to stop.

Chile has many legal protections for LGBTQ+ identities, including same-gender marriage, adoption rights, anti-discriminatory protections in the workplace, and healthcare for intersex and transgender individuals. This violent display at a typically peaceful demonstration of Pride in a nation with LGBTQ+-accepting policies is a stark reminder that just because laws can change, that doesn’t guarantee discriminatory beliefs will change.

The attack was condemned by the Chilean LGBTQ+ activist group Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation (Movilh). Movilh posted a few photos of the incident to social media, seeking out any information that could be used to identify the instigators of the violence.

“What we are basically asking is that anyone who has seen something and can recognize any of the aggressors write to our email or (contact us) through our social networks so that we can file complaints and do whatever is necessary to find those responsible,” says Javiera Zúñiga, a spokesperson for Movilh, in an interview with the Washington Blade.

Movilh describes the attack as, “Vandalism that seeks to transgress the peaceful trajectory of our demonstrations and that is only useful to the interests of the homo/transphobic sectors.”