Chilean President Sebastian Pinera yesterday ended a state of emergency that lasted more than a week amid mass protests, but demonstrations continued nonetheless.
The decision to lift the decree at midnight, just two days after more than 1 million people took to the country’s streets demanding economic and political change, comes after the equally unpopular week-long nighttime curfews ended on Saturday.
Authorities imposed the state of emergency and curfews after Chile was rocked by its worst civil unrest in decades. What originated as a student protest against a modest hike in metro fares quickly got out of control as demonstrations turned deadly.
Photo: Reuters
A message on the presidency’s official Twitter account said the state of emergency, which had seen 20,000 soldiers and police deployed on the streets, would end “in all the regions and towns where it was established.”
This measure came a day after Pinera said he had “asked all ministers to resign in order to form a new government.”
“We are in a new reality,” Pinera said on Saturday. “Chile is different from what it was a week ago.”
However, demonstrations continued on Sunday as thousands of people marched to the seat of Congress in Valparaiso, 120km west of the capital, Santiago.
“The strength of the social movement that has taken over the streets has been its ... peaceful and constructive character,” Valparaiso Mayor Jorge Sharp said.
About 100,000 people participated in the march, which ended in isolated clashes between demonstrators and police, Sharp said.
The government has been struggling to craft an effective response to the protests and a growing list of economic and political demands that include Pinera’s resignation.
A group of about 1,000 cyclists stopped outside the presidential palace in Santiago on Sunday, chanting: “Listen up Pinera: Go to hell.”
About 15,000 people gathered peacefully in the capital’s O’Higgins Park, police said.
The breadth and ferocity of the demonstrations appeared to have blindsided the government of Chile — long one of Latin America’s richest and most stable countries. Demonstrators are angry at Chile’s social model, low salaries and pensions, high healthcare and education costs, and the gap between rich and poor.
Pinera, who assumed office for a second time in March last year, had already shuffled his Cabinet twice in 15 months as doubts grew about the nation’s slowing economy and his leadership.
He offered a raft of measures earlier this week aimed at calming the public ire, including an increased minimum wage and pensions, some reductions in healthcare costs and a streamlining of parliament.
“These measures aren’t enough, even though they’re an important step in the people’s demands,” said electrical engineer Eduardo Perez.
By Saturday afternoon, the military presence in Santiago had been already visibly reduced.
There were fears that continuing protests could put at risk the APEC trade summit in Santiago from Nov. 16, but the government said on Thursday that it would go ahead.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS