What matters most, perhaps, is that the country no longer thinks of itself as an “oasis” in a turbulent Latin America (in the words of the clueless President Sebastián Piñera) but rather as part of the continent’s perpetual struggle for justice and equality. A new Chile seems to have been born.

Despite these advances, which prove that the political elite of Chile have started to listen to the neglected majorities they are supposed to represent, it is not enough for Pablo Z. and his leaderless comrades. He showed me four pellet wounds in his upper torso — and said he had been lucky, because many activists (almost 300) had lost some vision because the police deliberately targeted their eyes. Others had been beaten and raped in police stations.

Pablo Z. demands that those responsible for these systematic violations of human rights be put on trial and wants the rampant corruption in the highest places — far too often protected by a system rigged to benefit the obscenely rich — be penalized. He and his comrades, meanwhile, live on indecent salaries.

Violence, he argues, will not cease until these demands, including the resignation of the government, be met. He shrugs off the burning of churches, the interruption of university entrance exams, the barricades in the streets, as inevitable when trying to awaken the country to flagrant inequities, shatter its complacency and restore dignity.

Protesters repeatedly speak of dignity and have even renamed some places in Santiago “Dignidad.”

“We accomplished in 30 days what nobody did in 30 years,” Pablo told me. “As soon as we stop protesting, the people at the top will ignore us again. Why should we stop now?”

There are reasons, though, why the protesters might wish to rethink their tactics. Delinquents and narcos have taken advantage of the everlasting clashes to vandalize and loot. Conservative forces are using the resulting chaos, dread and interruption of normal life to emphasize law and order as the most important issue of the day instead of the urgent questioning of the economic and political model.

Sections of the Chilean right, nostalgic for the Pinochet years, have already begun backtracking from the need for a new constitution and are sponsoring harsh repressive measures against the rights of assembly and free speech.