Calm urged after violent protests in Chile
SANTIAGO: President Sebastian Pinera called on Chileans on Monday to help the country “live in peace” ahead of an anticipated fresh outbreak of protests in March.
Pinera said stability was needed to allow for an effective public vote on a new constitution in April and to be able to push through reforms to pension, salaries and health services.
“What the country urgently needs is a great national agreement against violence and in defense of democracy,” Pinera told journalists after a cabinet meeting at the Moneda presidential palace.
March is traditionally a month that brings protests in Chile as people return from the Southern Hemisphere summer holiday and mark the anniversaries of victims of the 1973-1990 military dictatorship, and international women’s day.
The results of educational government loan and grant applications can also spark unrest.
Protests broke out in Chile in October and raged until mid-december over the high cost of living and entrenched inequality. Associated violence saw metro stations burned, shops looted and set on fire, and a fierce response from police.
At least 31 people died, thousands were injured and tens of thousands arrested.
Protests have been muted in the capital in the new year but resumed with intensity in regional cities including Valparaiso and Antofagasta.
On Friday, the Santiago square which was the focal point of last year’s protests saw another large demonstration. On Sunday, an annual music festival in Vina del Mar headlined by Ricky Martin, saw police clash with hooded protesters outside the heavily fortified event. Cars were torched and the windows of a well-known hotel were smashed.
Thousands of protesters armed with stones, sticks and Molotov cocktails clashed with police on Sunday as Latin America’s biggest music festival opened, in the latest spurt of a four-month old wave of grassroots anger over economic inequality and other grievances.
Police blocked the entrance to a park where the festival was being held in Vina del Mar, a seaside resort about 120 kilometers west of Santiago.
Officers used a helicopter and a balloon with surveillance cameras and drove back the protesters with water cannon and tear gas.
“Vandals and criminals are trying to do damage just four blocks from the entrance to the festival. But everything is under control,” Jorge Martinez, the Valparaiso regional governor, told the 24-hour state news channel.