Chile: the commemoration of the 2019 social rebellion marred by clashes between police and demonstrators

Clashes between demonstrators and police erupted on Tuesday in Santiago on the event of the commemoration of the third anniversary of the 2019 social rebellion. The companies of the town heart lowered their curtains, the exit of the programs was exceptionally superior and 25 000 police had been deployed in anticipation of latest clashes as was the case in the course of the two earlier 18 October.

Some 2,300 individuals demonstrated in Chile, together with a number of hundred within the capital, a mobilization a lot decrease than these of the earlier two years however which was additionally marked by incidents in Santiago, particularly the fireplace of a truck or the theft of two buses. .

“There have been about fifty arrests, 13 law enforcement officials had been injured and a few 700 individuals dedicated crimes” on the nationwide degree, mentioned Deputy Inside Minister Manuel Monsalve.

Police used water cannons and tear gasoline in opposition to burning barricades and to disperse rallies round Place d’Italie, the standard epicenter of the 345 demonstrations that repeated themselves between October 18, 2019 and March 20, 2020. earlier than the pandemic put an finish to the social turmoil, in line with the Nationwide Institute of Human Rights (INDH).

A tense state of affairs for five months

In 2019, the discontent of scholars in opposition to the rise within the worth of the metro ticket had been the start line of a revolt to demand extra social justice. He had led to the election on the finish of 2021 of younger left-wing president Gabriel Boric.

“We’re nonetheless in the identical state of affairs, we have not received something,” mentioned Andrea Valdebenito, a 43-year-old social employee.

In 5 months, round 30 individuals had been killed in scuffles with the police, and a few 400 suffered eye accidents.

A authorities at a standstill

To get out of the disaster, the earlier conservative authorities had initiated a course of of fixing the structure. Written underneath the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), the present structure is taken into account to be a brake on any basic social reform in opposition to the liberal doctrines which govern well being, schooling and pensions particularly.

However the Chileans rejected in early September by 62% the proposal which emanated from a Constituent Meeting elected in Might 2021. Since then, authorities and opposition have been consulting to determine a brand new constitutional course of.

Learn additionally: After the rejection of the brand new Structure, Chile undergoes a serious cupboard reshuffle

On Tuesday, President Gabriel Boric, who was sworn in in March after promising to determine a welfare state, acknowledged that his authorities has “nonetheless not carried out the reforms” that enhance “the social rights of Chileans and Chileans”. . In keeping with him, the 2019 rebellion “was not an anti-capitalist revolution” however “an expression of ache and fractures in our society”.