CHLE : Massive protest and state of emergency declared

CHILE - In Brief 19 Oct 2019 by Robert Funk

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On Friday night Sebastián Piñera declared a state of emergency for Santiago, following the worst riot Chile’s capital has seen since the return to democracy in 1990. Several buses and nineteen metro stations were burned, stores and banks looted, and the headquarters of Enel, an energy company, set alight.The state of emergency essentially hands over control of public security to the armed forces for a period of fifteen days, renewable for another fifteen. It allows the armed forces to limit the freedom of assembly and of travel. One way this could be carried out is through a curfew. For the time being, the general in charge, General Iturrieta, has exhibited a light touch, both in his public statements and in his actions: no curfew yet. We will see what the next few days bring. Saturday was calmer as the cleanup began, but the cacerolazos – pot-banging protests – continued.All of this in response to the announcement last week of a 30 peso (US$0.05) increase in transport fares. This may seem like a pittance, but transport already represents about 20-30% of an average monthly wage. The fee hike amounted to an extremely regressive tax increase, and as we know, from the Boston Tea Party to the Poll Tax Riots of Great Britain, tax increases implemented at the wrong time, or in the wrong way, can lead to trouble, especially if they hit the middle class.Students (whose fees were not increased) started protesting almost immediately, staging massive takeovers of subway stations and jumping over turnstiles. Their logic was that if the rich can evade taxes, they can evade paying for transport. The government response was incredibly incompetent, sending riot-geared police into the ...