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In Santiago, left-wing and indigenous protesters have encountered heavily armed police units
Photo:
ANDRES PINA / ATON CHILE / imago images / Aton Chile
The drafting of a new constitution in Chile began on Sunday, accompanied by tumult.
The opening session of the Constituent Assembly in Santiago de Chile had to be temporarily suspended due to protests, as the rapporteur for the court responsible for elections, Carmen Gloria Valladares, announced.
"We want a celebration of democracy and not problems, so we will suspend the session temporarily."
Protesters clashed with the police during demonstrations in front of the former parliament building.
Some of the 155 members of the assembly took to the streets to demand the withdrawal of the special forces from the city center.
The clashes began after marches organized by independent, left-wing and indigenous groups met heavily armed police officers guarding the barricades in front of the conference venue.
Vale Miranda, the youngest constitutional delegate at age 20, wrote on Twitter that security forces were preventing demonstrators from marching.
"Now they hit us and they just split my lip!" She said.
"Let the whole world know that there is no democracy in Chile."
The historical body will draft a new constitution in the coming months.
The abolition of the previous constitution was one of the central demands of the mass protests from October 2019. In a historic referendum in October 2020, more than three quarters of the electorate in the South American country voted for a new constitution.
The current constitution dates from 1980 and thus from the time of the dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-90).
Many Chileans hold it responsible for the deep gap between rich and poor.
The new constitution must be drafted within nine months, with a possible extension of a maximum of three months.
It will be voted on in a referendum in 2022.
The 155 delegates were elected from more than 1,300 candidates in May.
Independent candidates received around 40 percent of the vote.
The traditional political parties, on the other hand, suffered defeat.
17 seats are reserved for representatives of the indigenous population.
The committee also has equal representation - that is, as many men as women are represented.
The new constitution requires a two-thirds majority in the constituent assembly before the people can vote on it in a referendum.
None of the traditional political parties have the majority necessary to veto them.
sol / dpa / ap