Police deny assault on photographer

During Friday’s demonstrations, in the vicinity of the National Assembly, against the approval of the mining contract, an incident occurred in which the photographer and activist of the “Ya es ya” (“Now is Now’) collective, Aubrey Baxter, was injured in one of his eyes.

The video, which shows Baxter, with the cell phone in one hand and with the other, trying to remove from his head a sweater with which he covered part of his bloody face, spread across social networks.

The witnesses and other communicators who were at the scene assured that it was a “pepper ball” thrown by a unit of the National Police that was at the scene.

 The photographer was taken by his colleagues to the Santo Tomás Hospital to receive urgent care.

In this regard, the National Police sent a statement saying that they were the ones who suffered “attacks and physical assaults that ended in criminal acts by protesters who were in the vicinity of the National Assembly.”

And regarding the case of Baxter, they categorically denied that they were related to this fact: “On the contrary, the protesters used homemade weapons, blunt objects, and fireworks against the police units that remained in the place….”

In the statement, the institution repudiated the violent events and urged the authorities to carry out the corresponding investigations in order to determine those responsible.