Five weeks after the beginning of the protests in Chile, the death toll has risen to 23. A 13-year-old boy was run over vans during a Demonstration in Arica, in the North of the South American country, as the interior Ministry announced on Friday.
The boy was therefore on Thursday on a barricade made of car tyres, as the car raced to lock in the Street. An adult was seriously injured, the driver was arrested.
The partially violent protests in Chile had at 18. October began. They were directed first of all against the increase of ticket prices in public transport. The protesters criticize but also low wages, high costs for education and health, as well as the growing gap between the Poor and the rich.
Call for deep reforms of the economic system: A protester in Santiago. Photo: Pablo Sanhueza, Reuters
Also on Friday, protests in several cities of the country in violence to beat again. In the capital, Santiago de Chile, thousands of people gathered at the Central Plaza Italia. On the outskirts of the Demonstration, it came to clashes between hooded protesters and the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons. Several hundred protesters also gathered in front of the Costanera Center, the largest shopping Mall in South America. Police officers in riot gear guarded the entrance.
In Quilicura North of the capital was looted a shopping centre and set fire to it. In Puente Alto attacked the protesters, one gas station, a police station and shops. In the city of Antofagasta in Northern Chile, five of the demonstrators were injured by a car were. In addition, a shopping center was vandalized. Looting and fires were also reported from Valparaíso, Viña del Mar and Concepción.
Pinochet Constitution is to hold
to be replaced Recently, the protests had gone back, actually, after Chile had decided to niche in Parliament on Friday, in April of 2020, a Referendum on a new Constitution. The old Constitution Pinochet dates back to the time of dictator Augusto Pinochet. The protesters also call for deep reforms of the ultra-liberal economic system in Chile.
The conservative government of President Sebastián Piñera, the protesters called on Friday again to rest. The Minister of the interior Gonzalo Blumel addressed a “heartfelt and sincere appeal” to “all political forces” to refrain from violence. (ij/sda)
Created: 23.11.2019, 13:28 PM
