Version imprimableGiven the ongoing mobilization in the streets, last Friday President Sebastián Piñera declared a state of emergency in the city of Santiago and several municipalities, putting the military on the street, a measure reminiscent of the times of the recent dictatorship of Pinochet. There has not been a curfew decreed in Chile since 1987. Despite this, the mobilization not only does not slow down but also extends to other cities where subway evasions and demonstrations are also convened.
In this way, there is a change in the direction of the mobilization which becomes national and social discontent is evident in the face of the neoliberal measures of the Chilean government, where the rise in the Santiago metro fares is only the tip of the iceberg.
The government’s response to the increase and extension of the mobilization remains brutal repression throughout the territory. A curfew has been installed in five regions (metropolitan, ValparaÃso and Bio Bio, among others). According to official data, eight people have died in the protests and more than 200 were injured, the vast majority of them in the capital, Santiago. The National Prosecutor’s Office has reported that as of Sunday there were 1,462 detainees.
The Chilean people have plenty of reasons to be on the street after decades of neoliberal policies and loss of rights. For example, the looting of water, the retention in rivers declared to be dry and supplying communities that live from agriculture and livestock. The extractivist economy at the service of multinationals. The budget cuts in health leaving Chileans and Chileans without surgical assistance in hospitals due to lack of medication. The endless student strikes at universities and so on.
Although the government has withdrawn the rise of in metro fares in Santiago, the protests are continuing and a general strike has been called for today Monday 21 October 21, which can be a turning point in the protests in Chile.
Therefore, Anticapitalistas calls for:
– Support for today’s general strike on Monday 21 October, wishing it to be a success and the beginning of the end of the neoliberal policies that plague Chile and the whole of the Latin American continent.
– The cessation of repression against the Chilean popular movement with the lifting of the curfew and the state of emergency. As well as the freedom of the protesters and a purge of those legally responsible for this brutal repression suffered by the Chilean people.
We send comradely, supportive and internationalist greetings from the comrades of Anticapitalistas.
Madrid
21 October 2019
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