In Chile, as many as eight people have died in widespread civil unrest that’s brought Santiago to a standstill and sparked a violent police and military crackdown across the country. The protests in Chile began in response to a subway fare hike two weeks ago and have grown into a mass uprising against rising inequality, high cost of living and privatization. Conservative billionaire President Sebastián Piñera canceled the fee increase on Saturday, but protests are continuing, with a national strike called for today.
President Piñera declared a state of emergency in Santiago and five other cities over the weekend, imposing a curfew and sending the military into the streets in response to civil unrest for the first time since dictator Augusto Pinochet’s nearly 20-year regime.
Andra Chastain, assistant professor of history at WSU: “I first want to say that this is nothing new. Transit fare increases have sparked major social protests in Santiago and throughout Latin America for over a century. And up until the dictatorship in 1973, social protest and political opposition and opposition to fare increases were a major reason why fares were held relatively low for many decades. There were uprisings in 1949, in 1957 in Santiago…. I also want to say that in 2007 there was a major overhaul of the transportation system that integrated the buses with the Metro, known as Transantiago, which also sparked major protests. So, this is nothing new. I think that social protest actually is a legitimate way to force the government into changing its policies.
“I also want to say that the Metro has — it began in the late ’60s — and it has represented the Chilean state for a very long time, and it has represented both the left and the right. So, under the socialist revolution of Salvador Allende, Allende supported the Metro. But after he was overthrown, the dictatorship of Pinochet kind of seized on the Metro as a shining example of what could happen under an authoritarian government. And since the return to democracy, both governments on the right and the left have held up the Metro as kind of an example of what they like to call the “Chilean miracle,” showing Chile to the outside world as this developed and democratic and exemplary model.”