Thousands of people demonstrated on Friday, November 27, in Santiago, Chile, demanding the resignation of conservative president Sebastian Piñera amid resurgent protests and violent clashes with the police.
Some 10,000 people, summoned on social networks, gathered in the streets near the seat of government, protected by a strong police presence, to march on Alameda Avenue, the main artery of the Chilean capital. Police used gas and water cannons to disperse groups of hooded men who threw stones at them and set bus stops on fire.
“The whole of Chile will continue to take to the streets, until this president resigns. As long as he does not leave office, Chile will continue to mobilize, not only in Santiago, but throughout the country ”, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Andrea Molina, a 36-year-old protester employed in a store.
Far from the wave of protest of October 2019
The demonstration comes after several days of clashes between protesters and police, as well as the women’s march which took place on Wednesday, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which ended in riots. But Friday’s rally was the biggest of the week.
Without a leader or an organized group behind the calls to demonstrate, the mobilizations and violence have resumed in the streets of the center of the capital, but without the influx of those of the past year. Demonstrations also took place in the towns of Concepcion (south), Antofagasta (north) and Valparaiso (center). An unprecedented wave of protests erupted in October 2019 and was interrupted by the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, which hit the country hard.
After the October 25 referendum, where an overwhelming majority of the electorate voted for a new Constitution that would liquidate the legacy of the dictatorship of the Pinochet era (1973-1990), the protest movement weakened, before resurface for at least a week.
