CHILE: Chilean strikers block Santiago streets with burning barricades as 48-hour strike enters second day

Record ID: 339033

  • Title: CHILE: Chilean strikers block Santiago streets with burning barricades as 48-hour strike enters second day
  • Date: 26th August 2011
  • Summary: SANTIAGO, CHILE (AUGUST 25, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS BLOCKING INTERSECTIONS WITH BURNING PILES OF RUBBISH POLICE ON STREETS VARIOUS OF RISING SMOKE FROM TEAR GAS POLICE CIRCLING PROTESTERS WATER CANNON DOUSING GROUP OF PROTESTERS VARIOUS OF POLICE EXTERIOR OF UNIVERSITY
  • Embargoed: 10th September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Chile, Chile
  • Country: Chile
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE3EIERHA4AMCYBB85BU3JX23Z
  • Story Text: Chilean youths set fire to piles of trash in Santiago on Thursday (August 25) on the second day of a 48-hour strike against President Sebastian Pinera.
    Police used water cannon and tear gas to defuse the latest rash of social unrest against conservative billionaire Pinera's policies.
    The government said hundreds of people had been detained since Wednesday and several police officers were badly injured -- two of them shot -- as violence flared overnight, when dozens of shops, supermarkets and gas station kiosks were looted and buses damaged.
    The government says only a fraction of public sector workers have joined the strike, called by Chile's main umbrella labor union CUT, which follows huge demonstrations led by students to demand free education and greater distribution of the spoils of a copper price boom in the top world producer.
    Public transportation was running, and operations at some of the world's biggest copper mines were not affected by the protests that also seek to pressure the government into raising wages and revamping the constitution and tax system.
    While Latin America's model economy is seen expanding 6.6 percent this year and is an investor magnet thanks to prudent fiscal and monetary policies, many ordinary Chileans feel they are not sharing in Chile's economic miracle.
    Previous governments have faced one-day national strikes, but it was the first 48-hour national strike since the 1973-1990 Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. A recent poll showed Pinera is the least popular president since Pinochet's rule ended.
    Even a major Cabinet reshuffle last month, the second since Pinera took power, has failed to quell unrest.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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