Chile-Enough!!!!!!

CHILE

Enough!

Truckers recently joined protests in Chile, calling for an end to highway tolls.

Hundreds of trucks drove slowly down a highway near Santiago, the capital, where protesters have clashed with riot police for weeks. At least 20 people have died in the civil unrest, wrote the Associated Press.

The protest has continued to escalate over the past few weeks despite the violence and the crackdown. On Friday, about a million people crammed the streets of downtown Santiago, NPR said. The city’s mayor, Karla Rubilar, tweeted that the protesters “represent the dream of a new Chile.”

Demonstrations initially broke out after bus and subway fare hikes. But anger over the police crackdown on the protests morphed into general outrage over economic inequality in one of Latin America’s wealthiest countries, reported Reuters. Many protesters told the news agency they struggle to meet the daily costs of living.

President Sebastian Pinera has adopted a conciliatory tone, apologizing for years of ignoring problems and promising reforms to correct them. “It’s true – problems have not occurred in recent days,” he said, according to CNN. “They have been accumulating for decades.”

On Monday, Pinera fired eight ministers in a major reshuffle of his cabinet in order to calm the situation. “We have all heard and understood the message of Chileans…,” he tweeted Saturday announcing the change. “We’re working to form a new team that represents change.”

As Foreign Policy magazine explained, Pinera proposed a 20 percent increase in state pensions, a minimum wage, a moratorium on a planned increase in electricity prices, and pay cuts and term limits for lawmakers. But as protests continued, it seemed clear that Chileans doubted those plans would address their many complaints about transportation, education and other issues.

Meanwhile, curfews and troops on the streets of Santiago remind many Chileans of General Augusto Pinochet’s 17-year-long dictatorship in the country that ended in 1990, reported National Public Radio. Pinochet’s regime imprisoned, tortured and killed thousands.

“It was like a slap in the face for all of us,” said 54-year-old protester Paz Lagos. “This history is still alive and we haven’t forgotten what happened when the military took over the streets. It was a very hard time – many died. We do not want the same thing here.”

Pinochet was arguably the architect of today’s Chilean free-market economy, which is prosperous relative to its neighbors but nonetheless has produced a wide income gap that has angered and frustrated ordinary citizens, the Nation, a left-wing magazine, wrote.

Similar discontent is driving people to the streets in Ecuador, India, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere, Fareed Zakaria wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.

Chile’s economy grew at 6 percent in the 1990s and 4 percent in the 2000s, Zakaria explained. In the past five years, though, growth averaged 2 percent. The International Monetary Fund now estimates Latin America’s growth this year will be 0.2 percent, down from a 1.4 percent estimate six months ago. People are working harder and getting less.

At the same time, elites appear more in control of governments in democracies and closed societies than ever, the Guardian observed.

If people feel they can’t get ahead, they’ll slowly lose confidence in society, law and order.