Incidents and collision with the police in a massive march against Piñera

A march of thousands of people this Friday in Santiago de Chile to demand the resignation of the country's president, Sebastián Piñera, and the release of those arrested during last year's social protests led to incidents of violence and clashes with the police.

The call came through social networks as a call to go around the seat of government, the Palacio de la Moneda, instead of concentrating on Plaza Italia, the epicentre of the social outburst against inequality that originated in October 2019.

Through banners and chants, the marchers showed their discontent with the government's decision to appeal to the Constitutional Court over the bill that seeks to allow citizens a second early retirement of 10% of pensions as a relief from the economic consequences of the pandemic.

They also demanded Piñera's resignation and an amnesty for those arrested during the last year of protests and those they consider "political prisoners".

The security forces cut off the demonstrators from La Moneda by means of several security fence belts and the deterrent action of trucks throwing water and tear gas.

Some demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, fireworks, stones and blunt elements at the police, created barricades, set fire to some city bus stops and destroyed street video surveillance cameras and other elements of street furniture.

Attacks on bank branches were also recorded, and local media reported some looting in retail supermarkets.

Vehicle traffic on the streets had to be cut off and several metro stops were closed as a precaution.

The protests and violent incidents were also replicated in other cities such as Antofagasta (north), Concepción and Valparaiso (both in the centre).

Chile's social explosion began on 18 October 2019 and in its first months brought together tens of thousands of people against socio-economic inequality, while acts of extreme violence took place with fires, destruction of furniture and looting, leaving some thirty dead and thousands injured.

Protests diminished during the southern summer and were suspended with the arrival of the pandemic in March, but spontaneous demonstrations returned to the capital after the end of the quarantine and are moving their epicentre from Plaza Italia to the vicinity of La Moneda.

The opening of a constituent process in the last plebiscite on 25 October was seen as the solution by many of the demonstrators, as it is considered to be the way to establish a new model of country that will undo the neo-liberal straitjacket of the current Magna Carta, drawn up during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

However, the protests have continued to date with different demands and directed their gaze directly at the country's president.