CHILEAN PRESIDENT SPEAKS OUT AFTER DEATH OF GAY MAN
Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera has spoken out after a gay man, who was assaulted in a horrific hate crime attack, tragically died on Tuesday night.
Twenty-four-year-old Daniel Zamudio was viciously assaulted in a park in Santiago earlier this month. His attackers not only beat him mercilessly but also stabbed him, cut off part of his ear, burned him with cigarettes and carved Swastikas into his skin.
Hundreds of people held vigil outside Zamudio’s hospital in hope that he would recover but, after hanging on to life for weeks, doctors finally confirmed that he was brain dead on Tuesday.
Following the news, President Pinera, who was on a trip to South Korea, tweeted that the “brutal and cowardly attack of Daniel Zamudio wounds not only his family but all people of good will”.
He added: “His death will not remain unpunished, and reinforces the complete commitment of the government against all arbitrary discrimination and for a more tolerant country.”
Zamudio’s attack has stirred debate across Chile about the need for hate crimes laws.
“We are going to work tirelessly in our congress to pass our anti-discrimination law as quickly as possible,” Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter told reporters after visiting Zamudio’s family at the hospital.
Four men who have been described as neo-Nazis – Raúl Alfonso López Fuentes (25), Alejandro Axel Angulo Tapia (26), Patricio Iván Ahumada Garay (25), and Fabián Alexis Mora Mora (19) – have been arrested for the crime.
It is sad that someone had to pay the price of new laws with his life, and in such a brutal way. How many more people should die for countries to change or amend hate crime laws?
and we are supposed to be a threat to society and the “family”, yet these monsters are encouraged by prejudice and hatred disseminated by the churches, and political structures.
may his death not have been in vain
Please, Let us ALL pray the hate away.
Poor kid. May he rest in peace, and his life not have been in vain. Thousands have died to bring us this far – let us remember that at Pride. But it’s also encouraging that President Pinera has personally responded. I can’t see that happening here. Unfortunately.
I had no idea there were neo Nazi Latinos, it’s a pretty huge paradox to say the least. The Krux of Nazi belieafs is white supremacy with the whole blond hair blues thing. Gays Jews r thier targets. My heart goes out to the Zamudio family for thier loss. They can rest assured his death was not in vain. Daniel Zamudio was martyred so Chileian LGBTI can have hope of feeling safe in thier own country… which is more than I can say for us in this country. How many more must die? How many more “corrective rapes” must happen before we can get a positive response like Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera?
R.I.P. May the Zamudio family know that support for them is world wide
RIPOSA IN PACE DOLCE DANIEL ZAMUDIO! 🙁
LA LEGGE DEL CONTRAPPASSO PERSEGUITERA’ GLI ESSERI VIVENTI IMMONDI CHE TI HANNO TOLTO LA VITA!
CONTRA E PATIOR