Young Gay Man in Coma After Hate Attack in Chile

Daniel Zamudio was murdered in 2012                               

A 21-year-old Chilean man is in a coma after an alleged gaybashing that took place in San Francisco de Mostazal Oct 20, Pink News reports.

According to the report, Wladimir Sepúlveda was in the company of friends when a group of men and women allegedly targeted them with anti-gay slurs, and a fight ensued. Sepúlveda initially managed to escape but his attackers caught him and allegedly punched him and repeatedly kicked him in the head, the report says.

It reportedly took about 30 minutes for emergency services to respond to the incident, and Sepúlveda's friends assisted in putting him on a stretcher because only one ambulance attendant arrived on the scene, Pink News notes.

The prognosis for Sepúlveda, who sustained serious head injuries, is grim, and LGBT group Movilh has criticized both the health services and the police for their slow response. Pink News says an unspecified number of people were arrested about four days after the incident.

The attack on Sepúlveda follows news that four men were found guilty of the murder of Daniel Zamudio, a 24-year-old gay man who was beaten, burned with cigarettes and had swastikas carved into his skin in a Santiago park. Zamudio died in hospital 20 days after the attack, which occurred in March last year. 

Patricio Ahumada Garay, Alejandro Angulo Tapia, Raul Lopez Fuentes and Fabian Mora Morahave were sentenced Oct 28. Ahumada was sentenced to life in prison, Angulo and Lopez were each given sentences of 15 years, while Mora will serve seven years, Pink News reports.

Months after Zamudio's murder, the Chilean Congress passed hate-crime legislation that had been bogged down for years.