CHILE: Fights in Santiago / Torture in juvenile detention

For months the Chilean people have been combating the old state tirelessly. On Monday there were big mass fights in Santiago again. Meanwhile the state intensifies the terror against the people.

On February 02, thousands of people gathered for a demonstration in the center of Santiago to protest against the president Sebastian Pinera and the bad living conditions in all. By night fall the masses began to attack the police forces. The protesters threw stones and molotov cocktails, used slingshots and built several barricades on important roads and set them to fire. Many Metro-Stations were forced to close and the whole public transportation came to a standstill for several hours. Some police stations were got also under attack. The police forces tried to control the masses by the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons.There have also been reports of protests and fights in many other cities in the country.

The protests started in October 2019 over a fare increase in public transportation. To fight the people the reaction in also increase the repression and white terror. The guardian reported that 4,080 minors were arrested between October and December, 186 of whom were then put in preventive detention. A report made by the national investigative police claims that sexual abuse against detained minors has been recorded in 50% of Chile’s juvenile detention centers , while 88% of detainees reported physical or sexual abuse and mistreatment. And this are the figures of an authority, so the estimated number of unknown cases might be much higher.