Riots and repression during the 8M demonstration in Chile | the Chronicle

Riflemen today dispersed a rally with fire hydrants and tear gas in Plaza Italia in central Santiago, Chile’s capital, after protesters attempted to demolish the monument that commemorates the general. Manuel Baquedanolocal press reported.

The incidents occurred when a group of hooded men arrived at the scene with chainsaws, intending to demolish the monument, according to El Mercurio and La Tercera newspapers, and the Europa Press news agency.

The irruption of this group was rejected by the thousands of women who participated in the demonstration, who after the intervention of the police dispersed in various districts of the city center.

Without official reports, the press claimed that the men in uniform made arrests, including that of feminist leader and conventional constituent candidate Emilia Schneider, who was released shortly after.

The statue which remembers Baquedano was set on fire and painted last Friday, in the middle of another demonstration, and the reactions to this fact sparked a controversy which involved some political leaders and the head of the army, General Ricardo Martínez.

The military said the “misfit cowards” who vandalized the statue “are anti-Chileans because they don’t know the story.”

The mayor of Recoleta, the communist
Daniel Jaduedeclared the military’s statement to be “undemocratic and deliberative,” so President
Sebastian piñera “We must ask for the resignation” of Martinez.

The socialist
Paula Narvaez, considered presidential, considered that the military declaration
“It absolutely exceeds the functions of a state institution which must be subordinated to civil power” and “does not contribute to the necessary democratic stability”.

Baquedano was commander-in-chief of the army on the ground in 1880-81, during the war in the Pacific which confronted Chile with Bolivia and Peru between 1879 and 1884, and provisional president of the republic during the civil war of 1891.