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

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

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.

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Sebastián Piñera made the announcement on Wednesday morning, telling reporters Chile would no longer be able to host November’s Apec trade summit and the COP25 UN climate conference the following month.

World leaders including Donald Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, had been due to attend the first event while climate champions including the teenage activist Greta Thunberg were expected at the second.

Piñera blamed the “difficult circumstances” Chile was facing for the decision and said his government’s primary concern had to be “fully restoring public order, security and social peace”.

“This has been a very difficult decision – which has caused us great pain – because we understand perfectly the importance [of the events] for Chile and for the world,” Chile’s centre-right president said.

“When a father has problems, he must always put his family before everything else. Similarly, a president must always put his own countrymen ahead of any other consideration,” Piñera added.

Patricia Espinosa, the UN’s climate change executive secretary, said the UN was “exploring alternative hosting options” for the climate summit after being informed of the decision in a letter from Chile’s environment minister.

Piñera said he had warned other world leaders of the cancellation.

Chile’s protests began in mid-October as a student-led fight against a 3.7% hike in metro fares. But those demonstrations quickly swelled into a much broader mutiny against inequality, the cost of living and police repression.

According to Chile’s Human Rights Institute, 3,535 people have been arrested since 17 October while 1,132 people have been taken to hospital – 38 of them with gunshot injuries.

On 18 October Piñera declared a state of emergency after violence broke out on the streets of the capital, Santiago, later declaring the country “at war” with “evil” delinquents.

After such moves failed to quell the unrest, Chile’s president tried to placate protesters with a conciliatory televised address in which he asked forgiveness for the “shortsightedness” of the country’s political leaders.

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Piñera also unveiled a string of progressive economic reforms, a cabinet reshuffle and the decision to end nightly curfews in an effort to calm tensions.

But those concessions appear not to have been enough. Daily street marches continue to call for Piñera’s resignation. Schools and offices are functioning sporadically. Lines at supermarkets have eased but little remains of the routine that just two weeks ago led Piñera to declare Chile an “oasis” in an increasingly volatile region.

On Saturday an estimated 1 million people poured on to the streets of Santiago for a peaceful protest that was reputedly the country’s largest since the dying days of Gen Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in the late 1980s.

“It is absolutely logical for no one to come. We’re in no shape to receive presidents at the moment. I support the decision,” said Marcia Ruiz, a 56-year-old protester who was outside La Moneda, Chile’s presidential palace, on Wednesday.

“The president lost control of this on day one,” Ruiz added. “It’s sad.”

The last-minute decision to cancel the UN summit is a blow to global efforts to tackle the climate emergency and will fuel fears that a vicious cycle is emerging in which divisions between and within countries make it impossible for states to act together to deal with the underlying causes of unrest.

It is also the second setback for international climate talks in less than a year. Brazil had been due to host COP25 but pulled out last year after the presidential election victory of the far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro, who has pursued an anti-globalist agenda.

A UK government spokesperson said: “We understand Chile’s decision to withdraw from hosting COP25. We will work closely with Chile and other important partners to help ensure that the crucial work due to be undertaken at COP25 is not affected. The UK government remains committed to bringing world leaders together to tackle climate change in Glasgow in 2020.”

Miguel Crispi, a sociologist and founder of the Chilean political party Democratic Revolution, said: “The cancellation of #COP25 is very bad news. It was a great opportunity to debate the climate crisis. This means the government is assuming that they can’t guarantee public order from now until December – and that is also worrying.”

Peter Hartmann, the director of CODEFF Aysen, an environmental group organizing to protect the wild ecosystems of Chilean Patagonia, said: “It’s a shame because the summit was an opportunity for Chile to be more coherent in their environmental outlook and to bring international attention to the environmental issues in Chile.”

Many activists will now be cancelling flights and hotels in Santiago but several groups are already on their way.

School climate strikers from Europe are in the middle of the Atlantic on their way to South America. “We just heard COP25 has been cancelled. We will have a meeting about this now on board, please keep us updated and any ideas are welcome. They can cancel the COP but can’t cancel the movement!” the group tweeted.