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(CNN) - Broken glass and brick-filled streets in Santiago were the result of more violent protests on Monday, which led the Chilean government to extend the curfew in the capital for the third consecutive day.
Shops and businesses have been looted and burned, and subway stations have been vandalized and closed to the public due to widespread demonstrations due to economic inequalities, living costs and increased debt in Chile, a usually stable country.
Thousands of protesters participated in a mass protest in Plaza Italia in Santiago on Monday, beating drums and pans and calling for the expulsion of conservative President Sebastián Piñera, in protests that have paralyzed one of the largest cities in Latin America.
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Clashes between protesters and security forces have killed 15 people, eight of them on Sunday, on the deadliest day of the demonstrations.
Most of the deaths were recorded in Santiago and occurred during the sacking and burning of the city, Interior Undersecretary Rodrigo Ubilla told reporters on Tuesday.
Chilean authorities said at least three foreign citizens, including two Colombian citizens and one Ecuadorian, were among the dead, a figure that CNN has not independently confirmed.
The protests began eight days ago over a proposed price increase for subway tickets in the capital city, Santiago, but since then they have expanded, revealing a deep anger among ordinary Chileans who feel they have been excluded from the country's economic growth. .
Chile is one of the richest countries in Latin America, but it also has one of the highest levels of income inequality in the world.
Many jobs are informal or temporary, and young people and women are among the most struggling to find qualified and quality work. Several sectors have called for a broader economic reform on a number of issues that include pensions, medical care and public education show the cracks in the country's progress since its transition to democracy in 1990.
Piñera announced the suspension of the subway price hike on Saturday, but did little to calm the turmoil. On Monday night, the Chilean Senate approved the cancellation of the proposed rate increase, and the senators condemned the acts of violence and asked for more unity and empathy to solve the country's problems.
Piñera said in a press conference on Monday night that he heard the plight of the people for a better life and insisted that "violence will not prevail." He also announced plans to meet with different groups, including the opposition, on Tuesday to find solutions for the country in crisis.
The president had previously enraged the protesters saying that “we are at war with a powerful and implacable enemy who does not respect anything or anyone and is willing to use violence without any limit even when it means the loss of human lives, with the sole purpose of producing as much damage as possible ”.
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Military in the streets
The extended curfew, which was first established on Saturday, began at 8 pm local time on Monday in Santiago and ended at 6 am on Tuesday, October 22.
Several cities in the country have also been placed in a state of emergency as thousands have taken to the streets. The corporate headquarters of a public utility company in downtown Santiago was set on fire on Friday, and on Saturday, in the port city of Valparaíso, the offices of the country's oldest newspaper, El Mercurio, were set on fire, Reuters reported.
Police detain a protester dunrate a protest in Santiago, Chile, on October 19.
Hundreds of flights were canceled from the Santiago airport over the weekend and schools have closed. The images on social networks show long lines of people outside the supermarkets in the capital waiting to buy food and supplies.
The government responded by deploying thousands of police and armed soldiers to quell the riots, the first time the army was deployed since General Augusto Pinochet's 17-year military dictatorship ended in 1990. Images of armored vehicles rolling down the streets of Santiago is a clear reminder of that era of brutal repression in which almost 2,300 people disappeared and 40,000 were tortured.
On Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Chilean former president Michelle Bachelet urged dialogue between protesters and authorities and called for an independent investigation into the deaths and injuries.
“There are disturbing reports of excessive use of force by the security and armed forces, and I am also alarmed by the news that some detainees have been denied access to lawyers, which is their right, and that others have been mistreated while in detention, ”said Bachelet.
Citing the Chilean Ministry of Interior, Bachelet said that 1,906 people have been arrested since the protests began.
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Stable but uneven economy
In a recent report, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said that the quality of life has improved for Chileans in recent decades and that the decline in the poverty rate is better than that of the United States.
But there is a chasm between the richest 10% and the poorest 10% of its population. According to the OECD, almost one third of Chilean workers are employed in informal or non-permanent jobs, and one in two Chileans has little literacy.
Many Chileans said they are frustrated with rising living costs, low wages and what they see is an inadequate pension system.
"This is not a simple protest over the increase in subway fares, it is a torrent of years of oppression that has mainly affected the poorest," Karina Sepulveda, an anthropology student, told Reuters in a protest in the center from Santiago on Sunday.
“The illusion of the Chile model is over. Low wages, lack of medical care and bad pensions have tired people, ”he added.
Catalina Magaña, spokeswoman for the Confederation of Students of Chile (Confech), said the demonstrations are due to the discontent of the people in that country.
“This is what is being lived in Chile for every day since the rise in the passage was announced, this is the discontent of the people in reality. They are years of repression, they are years of living in misery, they are years when the Government imposes measures at the expense of the people and when one goes out to the streets to demand their rights, to demand a dignified life, they put the repressive forces on us, ” Magaña told CNN in Spanish this Monday.
Others have directed their anger towards President Piñera, a center-right billionaire who was photographed eating in a fancy Italian restaurant while protests were taking place.
Piñera was reelected in 2017 after governing the country from 2010 to 2014 with the promise of transforming his homeland into a nation developed by 2020.
In an interview with the Financial Times a week before the protests began, the president compared Chile with other Latin American countries ruined by economic and political turmoil.
“Argentina and Paraguay are in recession, Mexico and Brazil are stuck, Peru and Ecuador are in a deep political crisis and in this context Chile seems like an oasis,” said Piñera.
Santiago will host the world leaders in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) from November 11 to 17. But in what would be a blow to Chile, the riots could threaten the summit and a long-awaited trade meeting between the United States. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Xinping.
- Jackie Castillo, Matt Rivers, Aimee Lewis, Daniel Silva Fernández, Flora Charner, Florencia Trucco and Claudia Domínguez of CNN contributed to this text.
Protests in Chile