Gay Jewish activist in Chile slashed with razor blade
Jorge Arce was attacked in the capital Santiago after thugs saw him with an Israeli flag on his t-shirt
A gay Jewish activist in Chile has been attacked by thugs who slashed him with a razor blade, after they spotted him wearing a T-shirt showing the Israeli flag.
Jorge Arce, who heads a Jewish LGBT group in the capital Santiago, was targeted while he walked through a park, with the assailants shouting “murderer” at the sight of the Israeli flag, according to the El Mostrador news site.
The men then chased him, punched him in the throat and slashed his arm as he lay on the ground, leading to his hospitalisation. No-one has yet been arrested.
“I had 40 stitches on my arm,” Arce said. “Some will be forever. Just for being Jewish. The pain overwhelms me.”
A spokesman for LBGT umbrella group Movement for Integration and Homosexual Liberation (MOVILH) said: “We repudiate this attack of hate, which deserves all legal and social sanction… We will support the legal actions that the Jewish community decides to initiate.”
There have been several homophobic attacks in Chile in recent years, with the case of Daniel Zamudio, who was tortured and killed in 2012, shocked the world and brought about new anti-discrimination laws in the country.
Zamudio’s attackers were sentenced to life in prison, after prosecutors described how they cut, burned, beat and crushed the young gay man for hours, carving a swastika into his skin before he finally died of his injuries.
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