 |
| Pinera declared a state of emergency on Friday night |
Santiago, CHILE
Five people died on
Sunday when a garment factory was set aflame by looters in a suburb north of
Santiago, bringing the death toll in a wave of unrest in Chile to eight.
Authorities have extended a curfew for a second consecutive night and
broadened the state of
emergency to other regions.
Earlier,
officials reported that two people had burned to death in a fire at a store
controlled by US retail chain Walmart, while a third person had died in
hospital.
A
metro fare hike, which has since been cancelled, sparked nationwide protests
last week that left hundreds injured. More than 1,400 people have
been arrested — 614 in Santiago and 848 in the rest of the country,
according to authorities.
Police
and the military used tear gas and water cannon against protesters in the
capital as violent clashes raged on for a third day, with protesters
setting fire to buses, smashing metro stations, vandalizing shops and knocking
down traffic lights.
"We
are at war with a powerful, relentless enemy that respects nothing or anyone
and is willing to use violence and crime without any limits," President
Sebastian Pinera said late Sunday in an unscheduled talk from the military
headquarters.
At
an emergency meeting with state officials, Pinera defended his decision
to call a state
of emergency and deploy thousands of troops.
"Democracy
not only has the right, it has the obligation to defend itself using all the
instruments that democracy itself provides, and the rule of law to combat those
who want to destroy it," he said.
The
curfew, intended to keep people "calm and in their
homes," according to top defense official General Javier Iturriaga,
will be enforced from 7 p.m. (2200 UTC) to 6 a.m., three hours earlier than the
one called on Saturday.
"We
want to ask people to stay at home. Do not discuss through shouting, looting,
violence," said Santiago Mayor Karla Rubilar.
At
least two airlines have canceled or rescheduled flights into Santiago,
affecting 1,400 passengers on Sunday and Monday. School has been suspended in
most parts of the metropolitan area for Monday.
Nearly
all the public transport serving the capital city's 7 million people was
paralyzed on Sunday. Cynthia Cordero told The Associated Press that she
had to walk 20 blocks to reach a pharmacy to buy diapers, only to find it had
been burned out.
"They
don't have the right to do this," she said, adding it was right to protest
"against the abuses, the increases in fares, against bad education and an
undignified pension, but not to destroy."
With
the public transit system depleted by the destructive protests, people
lined up at gas stations over the weekend as they tried to fill up for the
upcoming work week.
Subway
system chief Louis De Grange told AP that workers would try to ensure one
line was up and running by Monday, but that it could take weeks or months for
the other four to resume service.
On
Saturday, in an attempt to quell unrest, Pinera announced he was suspending the
metro fare increase that prompted the violent demonstrations. But rioting
has continued, with the president pledging to look for
"solutions" to "reduce excessive inequalities" in the
country.
Pinera
acknowledged that demonstrators had "good reasons" to
protest. "But nobody, nobody, has a right to behave with the brutal
illegal violence of those who have destroyed, set fire to or damaged more than
78 stations of the metro of Santiago," he said.
The
protests began on Monday over an increase in metro fares from the equivalent of
$1.12 to $1.16 (an increase of €.02), but have morphed into an expression of
broader discontent at the cost of living in one of Latin America's wealthiest
and most unequal nations.
What
started as mass fare-dodging led by students turned into violence and vandalism
over the course of the week, with fires set to metro stations and damage
done to other parts of the capital.
About
9,400 military personnel have been deployed in a bid to keep the peace,
according to the Department of Defense.
The
rioting has led to millions of dollars in damage to burned buses and destroyed
metro stops, office buildings and storefronts. - DW
No comments:
Post a Comment