Protests continue in Chile against murdered juggler

Nail 45 people were arrested and a police vehicle was set on fire during a demonstration in the neighborhood of Plaza Italia, Santiago de Chile, after the murder of a street artist by a Carabineros agent.

Around 600 people gathered at the iconic Plaza Baquedano yesterday, according to the police report, and skirmishes broke out in the surrounding area as riot forces cracked down on the protest with tear gas and fire hydrants.

The protests, which reappear every Friday afternoon in the capital, escalated after a policeman shot dead a juggler in the south of the country a week ago, causing serious incidents in the town of Panguipulli, where the Protesters erected barricades as ten public institutions were set on fire.

The police who killed him with five bullets were granted his freedom on Thursday in exchange for not leaving the country and appearing in court every two weeks. He is accused of simple homicide after having rejected the thesis of self-defense by the public prosecutor.

“They went to get the police,” General Jean Camus, chief of the Santiago Est zone, said in statements to La Tercera newspaper.

The force reported that after the unrest in and around the square, 24 people were arrested, including one for throwing an incendiary object at a police van.

The subject, whose identity has not been disclosed, is an engineer and has no criminal record. He was prosecuted for attempted murder, Molotov cocktails and theft.

According to Camus, at the time of his arrest, he had in his possession protective items taken from the police vehicle.

According to the information portal of Radio Bio Bio, which quotes the Carabineros, the vehicle was ambushed by hooded men using “miguelitos”, forcing the officers to descend to take cover. At that point, a gun was stolen and then it was set on fire.

Camus pointed out that riot gear and bulletproof vests belonging to the institution had been recovered during the operations, but not all.

On the government side, they regretted what had happened and alluded to the fact that the unrest had been caused by a “minority group of violent people”.