A young man was shot and injured while a student march was taking place this Friday in downtown Santiago, where hooded men provoked episodes of violence, in the first protest faced by leftist president Gabriel Boric after two weeks in government.
“There is a young man injured as a result of a gunshot,” said the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, specifying that it was with a weapon from a “traffic officer, not Public Order Control”.
The Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, meeting in the neighboring city of Viña del Mar with Boric, said that he was a 19-year-old “who had a bullet impact in the thorax” and described the event as “very serious”.
The ministers of education, Marco Aguilar, and of Health, María Begoña Yarza, who were participating with the president in an extraordinary meeting of ministers and parliamentarians of the government coalition, immediately traveled to Santiago to learn about the health status of the young man, who was not at risk of life.
According to the Police, the official fired his service weapon to defend himself when, together with other colleagues who were diverting traffic to speed up the march, they were attacked by a group of unknown persons. “Proportionality will be investigated and its details will be made available to the appropriate bodies,” said Carabineros General Marcela González.
The Chilean Air Force reported, for its part, that three of its officials were attacked with stones and other elements by those attending the march.
“It is very important that the work of safeguarding public order is always accompanied by the protection of people's human rights,” said government spokeswoman Camila Vallejo. “This will imply the great challenge that lies ahead as a government (...) which is the reform of the Carabineros”, an institution questioned for its actions to control social demonstrations, he added.
The autonomous National Institute of Human Rights appreciated the rapid investigation initiated by the Prosecutor's Office. “We hope that these facts will be clarified as soon as possible,” said Beatriz Contretas, head of the agency's Metropolitan Region.
Join the fight
“Boric, listen, join the fight,” student columns shouted as they pass in front of the presidential palace of La Moneda. The protesters called for an increase in the amount of the food card given to them by the State, equivalent to about two dollars a day, and were received by authorities at the Ministry of Education.
“This scholarship has not been increased according to inflation in twelve years, which is unacceptable (...) money is not enough today,” Ale, a 21-year-old law student, told AFP.
“Boric, if today is president of the Republic, it is thanks to the student movement. We know that he must have a permanent commitment to education, which has not improved,” said Sebastian, also a law student. At the same time, high school students joined the march to protest allegations of abuse and harassment in schools.
A decade ago, Boric led marches as a student leader in demand for a public, free and quality education in Chile.
“Pure bread and tea, this is how the Junaeb card (National Board of School Aid and Scholarships) has us,” the students claimed with several songs addressed to Boric, 36, who took office on March 11 as the youngest president in the history of Chile.
Hooded men and violence
A few meters from the presidential headquarters, a group of hooded men ransacked a pharmacy and broke a public transport stop. They also threw stones at policemen, who this time guarded the surroundings of the march with fewer personnel and a greater distance from the main column of students.
To repel the hooded, special forces personnel threw jets of water and blew the sirens of police cars, but this time without releasing tear gas.
Boric proposed in his government program to advance a more robust protection system in education, pensions and health.
He also promised to advance in the forgiveness of the million-dollar debts carried by students who applied for a Credit with State Guarantee, established in 2006, when schools did not have established free programs, and which allowed many lower and middle class students to access Chilean universities at the expense of dealing with a debt.
The CAE records some 350,000 defaulters who accumulate $10 billion in debts.
With information from AFP
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