Chilean unions join the pulse of the street against the government | Internationale

Although the impact of the appeal remains to be seen, the strike makes the Chilean crisis even more complex, where democratic institutions suffer from a serious crisis of representativeness. Protests against rising metro fares in Santiago have shifted to other cities. An expression of the general malaise that this country is experiencing and in which a significant proportion of the population feels outside the development of the last three decades.

After six days of demonstrations, the regions and municipalities that concentrate the bulk of the population are still under military control and in a state of emergency, despite the fact that, for the government, as the explained the Undersecretary of the Interior, Rodrigo Ubilla, the violence has decreased over the hours. Since last Thursday, at least 15 people have died – including 11 during looting in supermarkets or commercial premises – and there are already 2,642 detainees.

The demonstrations overwhelmed Piñera. "We are absolutely overwhelmed. It's like a foreign, alien invasion and we do not have the tools to fight it, "said the first lady, Cecilia Morel, in an audio file that has been circulating on social networks since Sunday. The wife of the president lamented that this private recording was broadcast, the veracity of which confirmed La Moneda Tuesday.

The executive tries to decompress the crisis by meeting different sectors of Chilean politics. President Tuesday held a meeting between the presidents of the different parties for "Explore and, hopefully, move towards a social agreement" so that "the middle class and the most vulnerable can have a better life," announced Piñera Monday night. But not everyone attended the meeting: the leader of the Communist Party – who was part of the last government of Michelle Bachelet (2014-2018) – said that he would not attend this meeting, while the army is deployed in the country. The Broad Left Front, founded after the 2011 student demonstrations and bringing together 20 parliamentarians in Congress, also did not attend the meeting. The most controversial absence was that of the Chilean Socialist Party, one of the essential links in five of the country's seven democratic governments since 1990.

"As long as the government does not assume its primary responsibility to control the situation by properly protecting human rights and all the political and social forces active in the country are not called, it will not be necessary. There are no conditions for attending a meeting without clear and objective objectives. exclude, "defended the Socialists.

While on Tuesday there were massive peaceful demonstrations in the country and at the heart of the biggest political and social crisis in Chile since the return of democracy, some of the opposition was promoting to Congress the discussion of the draft resolution. law that reduces to 40 hours Weekly working day, proposed by the communist bank. The left and center-left, challenged by citizens, as well as the government, are trying to respond to the crisis by taking measures such as lowering parliamentarians' salaries.

The National Institute of Human Rights (INDH), an autonomous law firm, has so far taken 21 legal actions in favor of 53 citizens. Two of the complaints concern alleged acts of sexual violence against women allegedly committed in police stations. According to the account of one of the inmates, she would have been installed upside down in the trash and, with the service weapon, a police officer reportedly said that she would shoot if she moved, touched his body with the rifle and threatened to penetrate with his weapon. .