CHILE: LARGE NUMBERS ATTEND PEACEFUL PROTEST AGAINST PINOCHET GOVERNMENT.

Record ID: 350089

  • Title: CHILE: LARGE NUMBERS ATTEND PEACEFUL PROTEST AGAINST PINOCHET GOVERNMENT.
  • Date: 20th November 1987
  • Summary: 1. GV PAN Rally being addressed at O'Higgins Park. 0.26 2. SVs People waving banners and flags, chanting. (6 SHOTS) 0.57 3. GV Crowd cheering. 1.02 4. SCU Manuel Bustos, president of the National Workers Command, addressing rally and GV crowds cheering. (Spanish SOT) (2 SHOTS) 1.20 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 5th December 1987 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SANTIAGO, CHILE
  • Country: Chile
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2HE2EGI77Q8L9YQO4J0T02SC
  • Story Text: SANTIAGO, CHILE

    An estimated 200,000 Chilean protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the military rule of President Augusto Pinochet on November 19. It was the first authorised opposition rally allowed in Chile for two years. The protesters were demanding an end to military rule and a return to democracy. They chanted: 'He's going to fall, he's going to fall', in a reference to Pinochet who has held power since a bloody coup in 1973. Despite demands for free elections, the military has said it would select a single candidate, possibly Pinochet, to be put to a plebiscite by early 1989. The rally was organised by a coalition of social, labour, business, professional and student organisations. It was held in a park in Santiago and followed a similar rally in Valparaiso the previous day. The main speakers at the rally were Manuel Bustos, president of the National Workers Command, a labour umbrella organisation, and Doctor Jose Luis Gonzales, president of another opposition group, Civility Assembly. The government played down the rally. Interior Minister Sergio Fernandez described it as a 'huge defeat of the opposition', saying that attendance was very small. The government's Press Office said that police estimates put the crowd at no more than 59,000. Bustos called on the opposition parties to put aside their differences and unite against the Pinochet government before it was too late. Gonzales told the rally that, without unity, there would be no democracy.

    <strong>Source: REUTERS - RAUL CUEVAS</strong>
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register