In Santiago, shops lowered their shutters, people left the center much earlier and about 25,000 police officers were deployed.
Clashes between protesters and police erupted in Santiago on Tuesday on the sidelines of events marking the third anniversary of the 2019 social uprising that led to the rise to power in late 2021 of the young left-wing president Gabriel Boric.
Shops closed their shutters, people left the center much earlier and some 25,000 police were deployed as many anticipated that incidents would unfold, as on the previous two anniversaries of October 18.
In 2019, student discontent over the rise in the price of the capital’s subway ticket during peak hours was the fuse of the social uprising with a central demand for more social justice in Chile, a laboratory of neoliberalism since the period of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973 -1990).
“We are always in the same situation, we have not won anything,” found Andrea Valdebenito, a 43-year-old social worker.
Police used water cannons and tear gas to break up burning barricades and gatherings around Piazza Italia, the focus of 345 mass demonstrations from October 18, 2019, to March 20, 2020, before the pandemic disrupted the social effervescence, according to with the numbers of the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH).
In five months, at least thirty people have been killed in clashes between police and protesters. Another 400 suffered eye injuries.
As part of its effort to get the country out of crisis, the previous conservative government of Sebastian Piñera initiated a process to revise the Constitution. The current fundamental law, a legacy of the Pinochet junta, is considered a brake for any in-depth social reform, especially in the fields of health, education, and social security.
But 62% of Chileans rejected in early September the text drawn up by the Constituent Assembly, which was elected in May 2021. Since then, the government and opposition have been trying to agree to start a new process of constitutional review.
Yesterday morning Gabriel Boric, 36, who took office on March 11 promising to establish a welfare state in the country, acknowledged that his government had “yet to implement reforms” that would improve “the social rights” of its citizens country. In the opinion of the head of state, the 2019 uprising “was not an anti-capitalist revolution” but “an expression of the suffering and fractures in our society”.
RES-EMP
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I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
