Chile: 36 detainees during the commemoration of the Day of the Young Combatant

The commemoration of Day of the Young Combatant of this Wednesday left, so far, at least 36 detainees according to official figures, due to various disturbances concentrated mostly in the center of the capitalone of the neuralgic points of the protests.

The mobilization, which is called every year in memory of the murder of the brothers Eduardo and Rafael Vergara Toledomilitants of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), perpetrated by the police of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) in 1985, did not bring together a large number of participants, but caused several incidents and numerous traffic stops.

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The protesters, most of them high school students, toured La Alameda, the city’s main artery, where they erected barricades and threw Molotov cocktails. During the morning there was also an attack on a press team from the Mega channel.

Of the total number of detainees, 33 were in the center of Santiago and practically all of them for simple disorders, except three for carrying elements for the preparation of incendiary elements. The other arrests occurred in the suburb of Saint Bernard for events that occurred during the early morning, and in the southern city of Concepción.

Students receive the pressurized water jet launched by a Carabineros vehicle, during a demonstration for the Day of the Young Combatant in Santiago, Chile, on March 29, 2023. (Photo by Ailen Díaz / EFE) (AILEN DÍAZ /)

The Policewhich deployed 6,386 troops during the day, 2,359 of them only in the Metropolitan regionintervened with the use of water cannon vehicles to dissuade the protesters and made several arrests of minors, according to local press reports.

After meeting with carabinieri and area prosecutors, the Presidential Delegation of the Metropolitan Region established 16 critical areas on the outskirts of Santiago and established 120 special surveillance points to prepare the management of the demonstrations.

The sectors correspond to the places identified by the Carabineros and where some disturbances have historically occurred, according to the presidential delegate of the RM, Constanza Martinezto the Chilean media.

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Every March 29, Chile commemorates the death of the two young people with a day of protest that, because it is especially intense in suburban areas and in some specific points in the center of the capital, causes services and businesses to advance their hours preventively. closing.

It is not the first time that even the Embassy of united state spreads an alert message on its website, in which it warns that the commemoration of this day “often marked by protests and acts of violence/vandalism”and recommends its citizens to be alert to their surroundings, avoid crowds and demonstrations.

Source: Elcomercio