Riot police are reached by a petrol bomb during clashes with demonstrators. — AFP photos
SANTIAGO: The death toll from violent unrest in Chile rose to 23 on Friday as the country entered its fifth week of social unrest.
Looting and demonstrations took place in cities across the South American nation, and an agreement on a political roadmap that will see Chile draft a new constitution has halted neither the anger, nor the bloodshed.
Furious Chileans have since Oct 18 been protesting social and economic inequality, and against an entrenched political elite that comes from a small number of the wealthiest families in the country, among other issues.
The crisis is the worst in three decades of Chilean democracy and has led to around 2,000 injuries, including some 280 people who suffered eye damage from shotgun pellets.
The latest death was a 13-year-old boy who an interior ministry official said was run over by a van during protests in Arica, about 2,100 kilometres north of the capital Santiago.
Thousands of people gathered again on Friday in Plaza Italia, the center of the demonstrations in Santiago and the site of weekly rallies that have seen massive turnout since the social upheaval broke out.
“We cannot ease up. We have to keep expressing ourselves because we have not achieved anything, because the repression continues and also (the government) keeps signing fake agreements, like the peace deal,” Claudia Ortolani, a young protester, told AFP.
Nearby, hooded men were squaring off against police, who broke up the crowd with tear gas and water cannons.
Interior Minister Gonzalo Blumel issued a “deep and sincere call to all political forces” to end the unrest.
On Thursday, authorities arrested 700 people in the unrest. That followed the police decision to suspend the use of birdshot against protesters, following an outcry over eye injury victims. — AFP