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ChiliClashes during the commemoration of the 2019 social uprising
Chile commemorated this Tuesday, October 18 the third anniversary of the 2019 social uprising. Clashes broke out in the capital Santiago.
Police used water cannons and tear gas once morest burning barricades and to disperse rallies in Santiago.
AFP
Clashes between protesters and police erupted in Santiago on Tuesday on the occasion of the commemoration of the third anniversary of the 2019 social uprising that led to the election at the end of 2021 of the young left-wing president Gabriel Boric.
The shops in the city center have lowered their curtains, the exit from classes has been exceptionally advanced and 25,000 police officers have been deployed in anticipation of new clashes, as was the case during the two previous 18 October events.
“We didn’t win anything”
In 2019, the discontent of students once morest the increase in the price of the metro ticket had been the starting point of a revolt to demand more social justice. “We’re still in the same situation, we haven’t won anything,” said Andrea Valdebenito, a 43-year-old social worker.
Police used water cannons and tear gas once morest burning barricades and to disperse rallies around Place d’Italie, the traditional epicenter of the 345 demonstrations that repeated between October 18, 2019 and March 20, 2020, before the pandemic put an end to the social turmoil, according to the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH). In five months, around 30 people were killed in scuffles with the police, and some 400 suffered eye injuries.
To get out of the crisis, the previous conservative government had initiated a process of changing the constitution. Written under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), the current constitution is considered to be a brake on any fundamental social reform once morest the liberal doctrines which govern health, education and pensions in particular.
62% rejection
But the Chileans rejected at the beginning of September by 62% the proposal which emanated from a Constituent Assembly elected in May 2021. Since then, government and opposition have been consulting to establish a new constitutional process.
During the morning, Gabriel Boric, 36, who took office on March 11 on the promise of the establishment of a welfare state, acknowledged that his government has “still not carried out the reforms” that improve ” the social rights of Chileans”. According to him, this 2019 uprising “was not an anti-capitalist revolution” but “an expression of pain and fractures in our society”.
(AFP)