VIDEOS, PHOTOS: The
'largest march in Chile' adds more than 1 million people and becomes
"the largest since the return of democracy" to the country
The most important concentration against the Government of Sebastián Piñera takes place in the city of Santiago, where the police began to repress the protesters.
This Friday is the 'largest march in Chile', as it has been called, against the government's neoliberal policies. Santiago authorities, where the most important concentration is held, estimate that more than one million people have gathered in the streets.
This new call, which began at 5:00 p.m. (local time), has three main requests, according to some 70 movements and social organizations grouped in the 'Social Unit': "Withdrawal of the Armed Forces to their barracks, withdrawal from Congress of all laws that go against the people and a new Constitution through a Constituent Assembly. "
At 18:08, an hour after the march began, the mayor of the country's capital reported that there were about 820,000 citizens concentrated in a "peaceful and family" in the Plaza Baquedano, in the commune of Providencia.
At around 8:00 p.m., the mayor of the Metropolitan Region, Karla Rubilar Barahona, who defines herself as a "piñerista," said in a dialogue with Cooperativa radio that 1,200,000 people who demonstrated in the city could reach, according to the newspaper. Third. According to estimates by the international agency Reuters, this would be the most massive protest since the return of democracy in 1990.
After eight o'clock at night, the first riots were recorded, when the police began to launch tear gas to baffle the protesters.
Also, the Bio Bio newspaper spread images of attacks on buildings and banks, looting of shops and fires on social networks.
The Chilean Army had decreed in the afternoon the seventh curfew in the Metropolitan region since the political crisis began. It will apply from 23.00 on October 25 (local time), until 4.00 on the 26th.
The protests have their epicenter in Santiago, but they are replicated in other districts of the country, where the curfew was also set for the night. In the city of Valparaíso, as reported by the local newspaper La Nación, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Iván Flores, decided to suspend the activities and ordered to vacate the premises, due to the presence of protesters in the vicinity of the building .
Protesters are sprayed by police water cannons during a protest in Valparaíso, Chile, on October 25, 2019. / Rodrigo Garrido / Reuters
The same media indicates that there have been incidents and there were at least two police officers injured.
The protests began on October 14, initially against the rise in the subway passage. However, social unrest intensified last Friday, with looting, clashes with the police, burning buses and Metro stations, which led Piñera to decree "state of emergency" and "curfew" in some cities.
Although the first protests were against the increase in the underground transport ticket - it ranged from 800 to 830 pesos (1.13 to 1.17 dollars) at peak hours - the social, student and union movements that called marches and strikes continued in streets.
Protesters protest against the policies of the Government of Sebastián Piñera in Santiago, Chile. / Ivan Alvarado / Reuters
It happens that the reasons for social unrest are multiple, and have to do with the growing inequality in Chile and the difficulties in accessing basic services, such as water, education or health.
The most important concentration against the Government of Sebastián Piñera takes place in the city of Santiago, where the police began to repress the protesters.
This Friday is the 'largest march in Chile', as it has been called, against the government's neoliberal policies. Santiago authorities, where the most important concentration is held, estimate that more than one million people have gathered in the streets.
This new call, which began at 5:00 p.m. (local time), has three main requests, according to some 70 movements and social organizations grouped in the 'Social Unit': "Withdrawal of the Armed Forces to their barracks, withdrawal from Congress of all laws that go against the people and a new Constitution through a Constituent Assembly. "
At 18:08, an hour after the march began, the mayor of the country's capital reported that there were about 820,000 citizens concentrated in a "peaceful and family" in the Plaza Baquedano, in the commune of Providencia.
At around 8:00 p.m., the mayor of the Metropolitan Region, Karla Rubilar Barahona, who defines herself as a "piñerista," said in a dialogue with Cooperativa radio that 1,200,000 people who demonstrated in the city could reach, according to the newspaper. Third. According to estimates by the international agency Reuters, this would be the most massive protest since the return of democracy in 1990.
After eight o'clock at night, the first riots were recorded, when the police began to launch tear gas to baffle the protesters.
Also, the Bio Bio newspaper spread images of attacks on buildings and banks, looting of shops and fires on social networks.
The Chilean Army had decreed in the afternoon the seventh curfew in the Metropolitan region since the political crisis began. It will apply from 23.00 on October 25 (local time), until 4.00 on the 26th.
The protests have their epicenter in Santiago, but they are replicated in other districts of the country, where the curfew was also set for the night. In the city of Valparaíso, as reported by the local newspaper La Nación, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Iván Flores, decided to suspend the activities and ordered to vacate the premises, due to the presence of protesters in the vicinity of the building .
Protesters are sprayed by police water cannons during a protest in Valparaíso, Chile, on October 25, 2019. / Rodrigo Garrido / Reuters
The same media indicates that there have been incidents and there were at least two police officers injured.
The protests began on October 14, initially against the rise in the subway passage. However, social unrest intensified last Friday, with looting, clashes with the police, burning buses and Metro stations, which led Piñera to decree "state of emergency" and "curfew" in some cities.
Although the first protests were against the increase in the underground transport ticket - it ranged from 800 to 830 pesos (1.13 to 1.17 dollars) at peak hours - the social, student and union movements that called marches and strikes continued in streets.
Protesters protest against the policies of the Government of Sebastián Piñera in Santiago, Chile. / Ivan Alvarado / Reuters
It happens that the reasons for social unrest are multiple, and have to do with the growing inequality in Chile and the difficulties in accessing basic services, such as water, education or health.
Last Wednesday, Piñera asked the public for "forgiveness" and announced a package of 'social agenda' measures. In his several attempts to stop the demonstrations that have already left 19 dead in Chile, he reversed the rise in the ticket, increased the minimum wage and basic pensions, announced the need to create catastrophic disease insurance, a mechanism that stabilizes the electricity rates and a new tax bracket for large incomes.
In spite of this turn of the Government in its policies, of the state of emergency and the successive curfews, the protests continue and become massive.
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