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Original article: Estudiantes entregan su versión por incidentes con parlamentaria Rodríguez: “Nos provocaron, empujaron y agredieron, en ningún momento tocamos a la diputada”

FECh’s Memory and Human Rights Secretariat Condemns Activity at the University of Chile Law School

They rejected statements made by invited Congresswoman Javiera Rodríguez, questioning the use of institutional spaces to support such positions and urging the university community to remain vigilant against narratives that threaten fundamental human rights principles.

The Memory and Human Rights Secretariat of the Student Federation of the University of Chile (FECh) accompanied their public statement on social media with the following message: «We regret having to issue a statement, but we must denounce the aggression we suffered from members of the Congresswoman’s team and from NDU, who provoked, pushed, and assaulted us. AT NO TIME DID WE TOUCH the Congresswoman (…) There were no aggressions against her as they want the media to believe (…) we will not tire of fighting.» They added that «every time a denialist sets foot in our educational institution, it is us, the students, who must raise our voices.»

In their public statement, they expressed their «deepest rejection» of the events that occurred recently within the Faculty of Law. The organization showed solidarity with the Memory and Human Rights Collective and with students who have worked to keep the memory of victims of human rights violations alive.

The text stresses that these efforts defend the principles of «truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition,” values that the secretariat considers essential for the university community and the preservation of historical memory in the country.

The declaration also questions the interventions made by a Congresswoman invited to a university event. According to the statement, the parliamentarian made assertions that cast doubt on the pensions and reparation mechanisms aimed at victims of ocular trauma resulting from state violence and on the families of dictatorship victims. For FECh, these claims «ignore the severity of the human rights violations that have occurred in our country» and represent a form of revictimization towards those who have suffered the consequences of state violence.

The organization reminded that the history of the University of Chile is closely linked to the defense of human rights and emphasized that the university community was severely impacted during the civil-military dictatorship. In that context, they highlighted the ethical and political responsibility to safeguard the memory of the 122 members of the university who were politically executed or remain missing.

In one of the most critical points of the document, the secretariat condemned «the use of university institutions, particularly the University Senate, for conducting an activity that, in their view, ended up lending an appearance of institutional support to widely questioned discourses and positions by sectors of the university community.

Furthermore, they warned that the use of institutional spaces and mechanisms for these purposes is particularly serious when related to matters linked to human rights, historical memory, and reparations for victims. The statement maintains that the University of Chile must continue to be a space for democratic debate, but also an institution committed to the fundamental principles of human rights; therefore, it is deemed inappropriate for university instances to serve as a platform for discourses that question or relativize decades-long struggles for reparations by victims and their families.

FECh emphasized that reparative policies «are not arbitrary benefits or privileges,» but obligations stemming from acknowledgment of serious human rights violations and commitments made by the Chilean state. According to the organization, questioning these mechanisms implies disregarding the suffering of victims and undermining democratic consensus built around the defense of fundamental rights.

In addition, they expressed concern over what they described as constant provocations driven by sectors of the New University Right (NDU), asserting that these actions do not contribute to university debate and seek to create artificial conflicts surrounding matters that deeply affect thousands of victims of human rights violations.

Finally, the FECh Memory and Human Rights Secretariat reaffirmed its commitment to an «unrestricted defense» of human rights, the memory of those persecuted by the dictatorship, and all victims of state violence. In conclusion, they called upon the student body and the university community to remain organized and vigilant against any attempts to promote impunity narratives or to use university institutions to legitimize positions that threaten fundamental human rights principles.

See the full statement on Instagram

La entrada Students Share Their Account of Incidents Involving Parliamentarian Rodríguez: «They Provoked, Pushed, and Assaulted Us; We Never Touched the Congresswoman» se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.