Bursting in Chile: Sebastián Piñera froze the electricity tariff until December 2020 to contain the protests

To try to soothe the massif events in Chile This led the government to decree the state of emergency, the president of this country, Sebastián Piñera, signed Thursday the project that cancels the 9% rise in electricity tariff and froze prices until December 2020.

The President defended the new measure signed after several days of demonstrations during which at least 18 people died. "It does not solve all the problems, but it's a big relief", he said and explained that nearly seven million homes would benefit.

Originally, Piñera froze transport prices, as it was precisely the increase in metro fares in the capital that triggered the protests. In addition, he will send to Congress on Friday the plan for an increase in pensions.

The document signed today by Piñera is part of a battery of measures announced Tuesday that seemed not to have had the desired effect so far. During this day, he promised an improvement of pensions the poorest, an increase in the minimum wage, higher taxes for high-income earners, a reduction in the diet of parliamentarians and high public salaries, and the suspension of higher electricity tariffs.

Also on Tuesday Piñera asked "sorry" and acknowledged his "lack of vision" to anticipate the epidemic, two days after declaring that the country was "at war".

This time, the President called for calm and declared that the situation of public order "Improved." "We all want to lift the emergency, but a president must act responsibly," he said.

Chile, air of calm

Chile faces Thursday another day of events after a social explosion that does not give way, in a country where many want to return to normal while others choose to follow in the streets looking for a profound change in the economic system.

The Unitary Workers' Central (CUT) and some twenty social organizations called a second day of paralysis this thursdaybut in the morning, many went to work in downtown Santiago and the business timidly opened.

During the night, the fifth day of the curfew, the riots have calmed down in the center of Santiago, although on the outskirts, the situation remained tense, with looting and fires that do not stop in a country in a state of emergency and with thousands of Military on the streets.

The figures of the events in Chile

The demonstrations, which exploded last Friday after the increase of nearly 4 cents of the metro tariff, leave to this day 18 dead, five of them under the action of state agents, in the midst of more and more denunciations of police and military violence.

A latest report from the National Institute of Human Rights (NHRI) also reports 535 people injured -239 of them by firearms and 2,410 arrested.

City in motion

While the army was monitoring the stations of the three subway metro lines, partially operational, many of the seven million residents of Santiago have tried to return to normal seven days after the start of the operation. crisis.

The remains of traffic lights and barricades that illuminate at dusk remind the people of Santiago that days of social stability have been forgotten for the moment.

At the three subway lines, about 6000 groups are added trying to compensate the surface of the four other lines.

Some supermarkets that closed on Wednesday opened their doors that day and most public schools welcomed their students, Apparent signal of normality.

In previous days, there had been similar attempts to resume the routine, although tranquility disappears at dusk, although some 20,000 soldiers and the police patrol the streets supported by helicopters.

In the past day, four hotels were looted and neighbors dressed in yellow vests carried out surveillance rounds in the surrounding communes to prevent theft.