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Editor's Note: Carlos Alberto Montaner is a writer and political analyst at CNN. His columns are published in dozens of newspapers in Spain, the United States and Latin America. Montaner is also vice president of the Liberal International.
(CNN Spanish) - The Vandals have destroyed, burned and looted in Santiago de Chile and other cities of the country numerous public facilities and private shops. The damages amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The key questions are: why have they done it ?, who has done it? and how to prevent them from doing so?
In my opinion, they have done so for two essential reasons: to punish the anti-communist positions of President Sebastián Piñera reflected in the Lima Group and to destroy the alternative model to statist collectivism present in Venezuela of the questioned president Nicolás Maduro.
- Look: Why are protesters in Chile dissatisfied?
Chile has become the first economy in Latin America through freedom and the market and that example had moved to Peru and other nations in the region.
It is not true that we must look for the origin of vandalism in inequalities. Chile had achieved the feat of substantially reducing the number of poor as the Gini coefficient that measured the differences between the most prosperous quintile and the lowest in the population fell.
It is also not true that the disorders occurred due to the rise in the price of public transport by just under 4%. That was the alibi. Much more has raised the minimum wage than the price of transport.
- Mira: Why the social outbreak in Chile?
Who have dedicated themselves to vandalizing in Chile? I firmly believe that the responsibility falls on the communists and on the legion of young people who turn the protests into a violent adventure that increases their adrenaline levels. They enjoy burning and hurting.
The way to combat this phenomenon so that it does not occur more is, in my opinion, the hard hand and not making concessions. Chile must apply the full weight of the law and the Criminal Code. You should not exceed those limits, but use them out. A great evils, great remedies. Vandals must learn that their actions have consequences. There is no other effective way to act.
Protests in Chile