Protests in Valparaiso, Chile

Wikipedia has already posted an article about the protests in Chile this week. Have a look for the background (and the photos).

Because of the curfew (from about 6 pm to 5 am every night) and the closure of business, Valparaiso (“Valpo,” as the locals call it) is the quietest big city I’ve ever seen. There is very little traffic save buses during the day and few pedestrians. EVERYTHING disappears at night; the stray dogs are apparently the only mammals exempt from the curfew.

During the day, armed soldiers and police, both men and women, roam the streets with semiautomatic weapons and full riot gear. Here’s a shopping center near the port where a guard limits the number of people who can enter at one time. This is surely to prevent the accumulation of protestors who could riot and loot. (I’m told that looting, which seems counterproductive to a cause, is often a feature of South American protests, and that even some well-off people engage in it.)

Here’s a protest in the streets yesterday. My poor Spanish translates the banner as “workers of the culture in Huelca”, though I don’t know what that denotes. This one was peaceful, with only a few police in attendance. The marchers bang utensils on pans (“cacerolazo“), a feature of protests in South America.

Here’s a video I took of the protest. Those without pots to bang clap their hands.

The death toll in Chile appears to be 18 so far, with some of the dead being looters killed in burning stores, but others shot by police. Two days ago (see Wikipedia article) a driver rammed his car into protestors, killing two (including a four-year old) and wounding 17. There may have been other deaths as some videos on Twitter show bodies being stacked up.

The protests are into their sixth straight day in the capital of Santiago, and have spread to several large cities in Chile. Despite President Sebastian Pinera having withdrawn the public-transportation fare hikes that started the protest, and having apologized to the people and promised reform, public tempers are still hot and protests continue. From CNN:

In a national televised address Tuesday night, Pinera apologized for “decades” of accumulated problems and announced a new social and economic agenda in the wake of the deadly unrest.

“It’s true — problems have not occurred in recent days. They have been accumulating for decades,” he said of the South American country of 18 million people.

The President promised social and economic reforms to tackle issues at the heart of the unrest, including pension raises, affordable medical insurance, lowering the prices of medicines and stabilizing electricity prices.

We saw more heated protests near the sea yesterday. Some scenes from that:

Here a crowd of people, mostly young people, are jammed up against a building, which appeared to be a supermarket whose windows had been broken. If you look closely at the left, near the corrugated metal door, you will see police helmets. The crowd has jammed the police up against the door.

Here are the three police surrounded by an angry, taunting mob. Fortunately, the protestors didn’t assault the police, for god knows what would have happened then. There has been tear gas fired and rubber bullets shot, which seem to do more damage to the body than I would have thought.

I approached the scene to see how the police were reacting to the crowd and their taunting. They remained peaceful. I suspect they were there to keep looters out of the store. Grocery stores seem to be a particular target of looters.

Many of the police are women:

A woman police officer in full riot gear. I think the mask is there to block her nose and mouth from inhaling tear gas.

Three police guarding the other side of the store. Clearly tear gas had been fired, as during this melee my throat and nose began to burn. Many protestors were wearing masks against the gas.

And so the protests continue. I am trapped in my hotel after 6 pm each night, and of course sightseeing is impeded since many places are closed. More reports later, but tomorrow I’ll show some pictures of this beautiful city, famous for its street art.