Category Archives: Chile

‘The salt they pump back in kills everything’: is the cost of Chile’s fresh water too high?

Posted on by

Antofagasta, situated on the edge of the Atacama Desert, relies on a vast desalination plant which provides the city with drinking water – but the waste brine is killing wildlife, say fishermen

As Eduardo Muñoz drifts his ageing skiff into Antofagasta’s harbour, flecks of paint peeling from its prow, he looks disconsolate.

“I used to get twice as many clams from every dive,” he mutters bitterly, hauling two large sacks of shellfish on to the dock and ruffling the salt from his hair.

Continue reading...

Chilean air force chief says cause of Antarctic plane crash may never be known

Posted on by

Investigators may never recover enough wreckage to know why the Hercules crashed, killing 38

The commander-in-chief of the Chilean air force has said that the struggle to recover the remains of a Hercules that crashed en route to the Antarctic two weeks ago could make it difficult to ever determine what happened to the plane.

The Hercules C-130 cargo plane, which was carrying 17 crew and 21 passengers, disappeared shortly after taking off on 9 December from the southern city of Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia.

Continue reading...

‘Mentally, we’re in crisis mode’: protests leave Chileans living on their nerves

Posted on by

Chileans are gripped by uncertainty – suspended between hopes of progress, and frustration over an elusive political solution

When a tsunami of unrest spilled into Santiago’s fashionable Bellavista neighbourhood in October, Daniel Gajardo, 33, was torn between sympathy for the protesters and frustration at the harm they were doing his fledgling business.

The recording studio and music shop he co-owns had been thriving, and moved to new premises just a day before the first major demonstration.

Continue reading...

‘A rapist in your path’: Chilean protest song becomes feminist anthem – video

Posted on by

A Chilean protest song about rape culture and victim shaming has become an anthem for feminists around the world.

Un Violador en Tu Camino (A Rapist in Your Path) was first performed in late November as Chile’s nationwide uprising against social inequality entered its second month.

Here's a look at how the song, and its accompanying dance moves, have spread across Latin America and the world.

Continue reading...

Chilean singer Mon Laferte exposes breasts at Latin Grammys to back protesters

Posted on by

Musician reveals message painted on her chest in latest celebrity show of support for national demonstrations

The Chilean singer Mon Laferte exposed her breasts during a broadcast of the Latin Grammys, in the latest of a string of high-profile shows of support for anti-government demonstrators in her home country.

The 36-year-old singer-songwriter made her silent protest against police brutality on Thursday night as she walked the award ceremony’s red carpet in Las Vegas.

Continue reading...

Chilean police officer arrested after shooting students at protest

Posted on by

Other officers have been accused of a beating and sexual abuse as unrest enters third week, with 2,000 injured

A Chilean police major who shot two students during a school protest has been arrested as a wave of political unrest enters a third week and the number of injured in street violence topped 2,000.

Maj Humberto Tapia was arrested by detectives on Thursday and charged with illegally discharging his shotgun inside a public school that had been occupied by students on Tuesday. A call by the beleaguered principal led to a confrontation with students in which Tapia fired into the floor, sending buckshot ricocheting into the legs of students.

Continue reading...

‘We’ve reached a crisis’, tens of thousands protest in Chile – video report

Posted on by

Tens of thousands of people have been protesting in Chile after a student protest against a 3% hike in subway fares, later scrapped, sparked nationwide uprising demanding economical and political changes.

At least 18 people have died in the violence and thousands have been arrested amid widespread outbreaks of violence and arson. Chilean president Sebastián Piñera has replaced eight ministers and announced emergency measures to quash the protests, including a small increase in the minimum wage and higher taxes on wealthy Chileans.

But such moves have not been enough to defuse the demonstrations driven by disillusionment over inequality 

Continue reading...

Greta Thunberg asks for lift back across Atlantic as climate meeting shifts to Madrid

Posted on by

Swedish teenager needs help getting back to Europe following the COP25 meeting’s move from Chile to Spain

As delegates to the COP25 climate summit scramble to adjust to a last-minute change of venue from Santiago to Madrid, one of the highest-profile attendees has stuck out a metaphorical thumb on social media to ask for a lift across the Atlantic.

Teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was speaking in California during a stop on her low-emissions journey from Sweden to Chile, tweeted that she was now in need of a ride to Spain.

Continue reading...

Chilean president cancels Apec and climate summits amid wave of unrest

Posted on by

Sebastián Piñera confirms he will not hold summits in November and December, as government struggles with massive protests

Chile’s embattled president has been forced to cancel two major international summits after government concessions failed to defuse weeks of violent protests that have seen thousands of arrests, left at least 20 dead and sent shock waves across Latin America.

Related: Chile protesters: 'We are subjugated by the rich. It's time for that to end'

Continue reading...

How Pinochet’s economic model led to the current crisis engulfing Chile

Posted on by

President Sebastián Piñera has chance to lay foundation of a real welfare state as protests reflect country’s discontent with inequalities

After 12 days of mass demonstrations, rioting and human rights violations, the government of President Sebastián Piñera must now find a way out of the crisis that has engulfed Chile.

Analysts have correctly interpreted the wave of protests as a reflection of discontent with the material, political and social inequalities engendered by the economic model imposed by the country’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Continue reading...

The Guardian view on Lebanon and Chile: too little, too late for protesters | Editorial

Posted on by
Mass unrest has seized both countries. The long-term causes will not be resolved quickly or easily

The events which have brought two countries to the brink were precipitated by apparently small policy shifts that proved emblematic of the ruling elite’s inability to answer or even understand their people’s basic needs while enriching themselves. Chile’s biggest political crisis since the return of democracy almost 30 years ago was triggered by a 3% rise in metro fares, the protests which have engulfed and paralysed Lebanon by a proposed tax on WhatsApp calls. But the underlying causes run far deeper, and have been building for much longer. There is deep anger at political and economic systems that have ignored most of the population.

These countries are, of course, very different. Lebanon has been staggering along for years, due to both political dysfunction and endemic corruption. The central bank governor warns that its economy – long shored up by remittances from overseas – is now days away from collapse. Recently it emerged that, before he became prime minister, Saad Hariri gave $16m to a South African model: a sum encapsulating the gulf between the lives of those at the top and the rest.

Continue reading...

Chile: protesters light bonfires and clash with police despite cabinet reshuffle

Posted on by

Fresh upheaval erupts shortly after president Sebastían Piñera announces firing of hardline officials

Fresh street battles and fires have broken out in downtown Santiago just hours after Chile’s embattled president, Sebastían Piñera, fired hardline members of his cabinet in an attempt to defuse the country’s biggest political crisis since the return to democracy in 1990.

Bands of protesters lit bonfires along the central Alameda Avenue and clashed with riot police as clouds of teargas and smoke engulfed the centre of the city.

Continue reading...

Hundreds shot and beaten as Chile takes to the streets

Posted on by
Doctors say they don’t have supplies to treat wounded and accuse authorities of under-reporting injuries

“The soldier was about 40m away. He looked at me and fired,” said Christopher Madrid, pointing to the patch above his right eye. “I swung away and the bullet grazed [my forehead] and came out, left a scar of four or five centimetres.”

Madrid, a 25-year-old student, was shot last Monday by Chilean army troops as he marched in a street protest near the Catholic University in central Santiago.

Continue reading...

Chile’s congress evacuated as inequality protests paralyse Santiago

Posted on by

Legislature in Valparaíso empties after protestors try to force entry to grounds; up to 1 million rally in Santiago

Chile’s Congress has been evacuated after protestors tried to force their way on to the building’s grounds, in a new challenge to a government struggling to contain deadly unrest over economic hardship.

Police fired teargas on Friday to fend off hundreds of demonstrators on the perimeter as some lawmakers and administrative staff hurried out of the legislative building, which is in the port city of Valparaíso.

Continue reading...

Protests rage around the world – but what comes next?

Posted on by

Unrest is seemingly everywhere. We look at the some of the reasons for and responses to it in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Chile, Catalonia and Iraq

In Lebanon they are against a tax on WhatsApp and endemic corruption. In Chile, a hike in the metro fare and rampant inequality. In Hong Kong, an extradition bill and creeping authoritarianism. In Algeria, a fifth term for an ageing president and decades of military rule.

The protests raging today and in the past months on the streets of cities around the world have varying triggers. But the fuel is familiar: stagnating middle classes, stifled democracy and the bone-deep conviction that things can be different – even if the alternative is not always clear.

Continue reading...

An explosion of protest, a howl of rage – but not a Latin American spring

Posted on by

From Chile to Ecuador and Bolivia to Haiti police and protesters are clashing on the streets, but what are the common threads and will they lead to change?

Tanks on the streets in Chile. Barricades and bloodshed in Bolivia. Weeks of unrest that have pushed Haiti to the brink and forced Ecuador’s president to relocate his government.

“This is a social revolution,” said Andrea Lyn, a 61-year-old actor who took to the streets of Santiago this week. “It is us saying: ‘No more’.”

Continue reading...