SANTIAGO, Chile — Thousands of Chileans filled a plaza in the center of the capital Tuesday in the 12th day of demonstrations that began with youth protests over a subway fare hike and transformed into a leaderless national movement demanding greater equality and better public services in a country long seen as an economic success story.
A move to meet one of their demands — replacing Chile’s dictatorship-era constitution — appeared to gain some momentum in the country’s congress.
Marches began in the early afternoon and as the sun set, there was a festive atmosphere in Plaza Italia, a rallying point during the demonstrations. The protesters banged pots and pans, blew plastic whistles and waved the Chilean and Mapuche indigenous flags. Vendors sold snacks, jewelry, hats and T-shirts. The demonstrators, many in their 20s and 30s, pressed their call for changes to a market-dominant socio-economic model that has fully or partially privatized pensions, health and education. They hoisted signs calling for pension reform, an end to the private ownership of water rights or for the resignation of President Sebastian Pinera.
“There’s an economic development system that’s made us all accustomed to injustice, a profound dissatisfaction among the vast majority of people who feel that they aren’t seeing the benefits of economic development,” said Jorge Pinto, a 24-year-old student of public administration.
On several side streets the atmosphere was tenser, as groups of masked protesters set fire to garbage and trees in a local park, before they were chased off by police with tear gas and water cannon. Attempts to reach the presidential palace were blocked by police barricades.
Some demonstrators are angry about the retirement system, which forces Chileans to hand over 10 percent of their income to private fund managers and then receive pensions that barely cover a third of most people’s monthly expenses. Others fume about a public health system that makes many wait months for an appointment with a specialist, or seek expensive private care.
Still others resent university loans that they are still paying into their 40s and 50s, even as 1 percent of the population earns 33 percent of the nation’s wealth, making Chile the most unequal country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development group of wealthy nations.
Virtually none have been satisfied by Pinera’s response to the protests, which includes replacing eight ministers, calling for national dialogue, offering small increases in the minimum wage and the lowest pensions, higher taxes on the wealthy and decreases in the prices of medicine and electricity.
Pinera, a billionaire businessman who sees the private sector and economic growth as the keys to national success, may be hoping that his relatively minor concessions will calm the streets, said Lucia Dammert, a sociologist and political scientist at the University of Santiago.
