SANTIAGO, Nov 9, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Demonstrators in Chile set a university
building ablaze and ransacked a church Friday at the close of an otherwise
peaceful rally marking three weeks of unprecedented protests against social
and economic inequality.
Protesters clashed with police who had set up barricades to protect private
Pedro de Valdivia University, and shortly thereafter the wooden roof of its
100-year-old administration building began to burn, witnesses said.
Fire crews had trouble reaching the blaze because of all the demonstrators.
Nearby, hooded protesters looted the church of La Asuncion, which was built
in 1876, dragging furniture outside and setting it alight.
Tens of thousands of people had filed earlier into Plaza Italia, which has
become ground zero in this spasm of grassroots fury over low wages, high
costs for education and health care and a socio-economic system they see as
favoring the wealthy. The unrest has left 20 people dead.
In the third such huge march, they renamed the square “Dignity Plaza.”
As night fell, protesters blocked roads near an upscale shopping mall that
is considered a symbol of modern, prosperous Chile and erected flaming
barricades. They chanted and shouted slogans against conservative President
Sebastian Pinera.
The mall has been closed for nearly two weeks because of the unrest.
As they passed by the presidential palace, protesters chanted slogans
against Pinera and demanded that he step down. They also insulted police
guarding the building.
“I came to crush these myths that these are violent protests,” said
Cristian, a 27-year-old student.
On Thursday Pinera announced measures to tighten public order in the wake
of the anti-government protests.
Unrest that began on October 18 with protests against a rise in rush hour
metro fares and has descended into burning, looting and daily clashes between
protesters and police in a broader outcry against the status quo in what is
generally considered one of South America’s most stable countries.
Police said Thursday nearly 10,000 people had been arrested during the
unrest, most being released shortly afterwards.
The president last week reshuffled his government and announced a series of
measures aimed at placating the protesters, including a law guaranteeing a
minimum monthly wage of about $465.
But protesters have continued demanding that the right-wing billionaire
step down.
“There have been many years of abuse,” Raul Torres, a 65-year-old retiree
who said that after 43 years of work, he receives a pension of 130,000 pesos
($175), barely enough to live on.
Marching along a road called the Alameda, Torres teared up as he said, “It
fills me with joy to see these young people rising up.
“How could people not realize before that we were being condemned to
poverty?”