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Title: Chile: Resisting under Martial Law Author: CrimethInc. Date: October 21, 2019 Language: en Topics: Chile, reportback, interview, police, student movement, transport Source: Retrieved on 17th June 2021 from https://crimethinc.com/2019/10/21/chile-resisting-under-martial-law-a-report-interview-and-call-to-action
Since the revolt in Ecuador spread to Chile, the conflict has escalated
rapidly. The government has called in the military and declared martial
law, but people refuse to leave the streets, continuing to create an
ungovernable situation. Despite the swift cancellation of the metro fair
increase that first triggered the protests, their anger runs much
deeper; many throughout the country are enraged by the dramatic
disparities in wealth and power that capitalism has created and
infuriated by the president’s decision to attempt to crush protest by
means of the military—a strategy that recalls the military dictatorship
of 1973–1990. Strikes and protests are taking place around the country
today—in Punta Arenas, ConcepciĂłn, ValparaĂso, Valdivia, and Temuco as
well as Santiago.
The Chilean government admits to eight deaths in the course of the
unrest, seven in fires and one murdered by military gunfire during
demonstrations. However, there are reports circulating of 11 deaths, and
many people have been shot by police, soldiers, and right-wing
vigilantes. See below for more details.
In the following text, we offer our own brief report from the streets of
Chile, an interview with a Chilean anarchist from within the movement,
and a call to action from other participants in the movement.
On Saturday, the protests started before noon. Throughout all of the
city and the neighborhoods you could hear a steady drone of pots and
pans, cars honking, all to the rhythm of popular chants: “Evadir, no
pagar, otra forma de luchar” (“Dodge the fare, don’t pay, another form
of struggle”) and “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” (“the people,
united, will never be defeated”).
After the declaration of the state of emergency Friday night, it was
guaranteed that Saturday would see more protest. All day long, various
forms of rebellion erupted throughout the city. Big bands played protest
music and led chants, many people built barricades and set them aflame.
People smashed the windows of many key government buildings and banks,
then removed the furniture to build barricades and destroyed bank
records. Many stores were looted of items both for fun and for
necessity. More busses were burned as people clashed with police. The
military was out in force with long guns, adding to the atmosphere of
anxiety and revolt.
A curfew was declared for 10 pm Saturday night in Santiago as well as
other cities that were participating in protest—Concepción and
ValparaĂso. As the sun set, some people began to go home out of fear
that the military would begin to employ their weapons with deadly force.
Many other people chose to stay out past the curfew and into the night.
Clashes continued to decentralize, spreading further into the
peripheries of Santiago, filling the whole city. Some of the most severe
police and military violence occurred in the peripheries: MaipĂş,
Pudahuel Sur, and San Bernardo, a semi-rural suburb on outskirts of the
city.
Demonstrators torched tollbooths on the freeway north of Santiago.
In ValparaĂso, protesters burned a building belonging to the
right-wing/fascist press, a newspaper called “Mercury.” ValparaĂso
experienced heavy military repression, with soldiers running through the
streets and attacking protesters. A few hours after the curfew, it was
announced on the radio that the military presence would be doubled
starting Sunday in Santiago. A new hashtag began to circulate:
News reports early Sunday announced that 240 people had been detained on
Saturday night for curfew violations, more than 600 had been arrested
around the country, and 62 cops injured. The total number of arrests and
injuries throughout the week is much higher. Walmart Chile announced
that “due to acts of vandalism, it has suffered looting in more than 60
locations in the Metropolitan Region and in the regions of ValparaĂso,
Antofagasta, Calama, Concepción, San Antonio, and Temuco.” Footage
circulated of police openly using cocaine in the middle of the
demonstrations to pump themselves up before attacking demonstrators.
[This footage has since been removed from Instagram, but we saw it and
consider it damning.]
Reportedly, six trains had been damaged, three of which were completely
destroyed. It will take months to return the newest line in the metro to
service.
On Sunday evening, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera made a televised
address to the country from the headquarters of the army in Santiago:
“Democracy not only has the right, it has the obligation to defend
itself using all the instruments that democracy itself provides, and the
rule of law to combat those who want to destroy it… We are at war
against a powerful, implacable enemy, who does not respect anything or
anyone and who is willing to use violence and crime without any limit.”
Not only this statement, but the context from which it was presented,
shows clearly enough how intertwined democracy is with the same military
force that ruled under the military dictatorship. Anyone who has much
experience on the receiving end of state violence knows that the
authorities always accuse us of whatever they plan to do to us, in order
to legitimize their aggression in advance. From this statement, it is
clear enough that President Piñera and the mercenaries who serve him are
attempting to create a discourse in which they can legitimize killing
large numbers of people to return Chile to their control.
People all around the world should be inspired by the courage shown by
ordinary people in Chile and do our best to make it impossible for the
military to slaughter the people in the streets. Below follows an
interview with an anarchist participant in the uprising and a call to
action from other participants.
How often does the State of Emergency or Curfew law get used in Chile?
When was the last time the state employed them?
The emergency powers that the Chilean state has implemented were passed
down from the Pinochet (or Pinoshit, as we like to call him here)
dictatorship. The Domestic Security Law (Ley de Seguridad Interior del
Estado, or LSE) has existed since 1958, before the military’s 1973 coup,
but in 1975, the dictatorship greatly expanded its powers, especially
regarding crimes of “public disorder.” The law raises the penalties and
sentencing for a variety of violations and crimes during times when the
“functioning of the country” is altered. For example, in 2002, the
government (headed by socialists!) used the LSE against a bus drivers’
strike. In general, it serves more as a deterrent and a threat than an
actual tool for taking anyone in particular to trial.
Then there’s the State of Emergency currently in effect, which was
written into the dictatorship’s 1980 constitution, the same constitution
we have today.
The State of Emergency has previously only been used during natural
disasters (like the 2010 earthquake in ConcepciĂłn and during other
earthquakes and floods). During those disasters, we’ve seen the army in
the streets, allegedly to “help” people and clear rubble, but in
reality, the armed forces use these cases as military
exercises—practicing how to take over cities and defend the private
property of multinational corporations. While States of Emergency have
been declared in recent memory, this is the first time since the
dictatorship (specifically since 1987) that a curfew (toque de queda)
has been utilized. It is also the first time that the state has deployed
the armed forces specifically for the task of repression. For people in
Chile, it is shocking to see the streets full of military vehicles,
tanks, and jeeps full of armed troops. However, the younger generations
seem to be less afraid of them than those that remember the
dictatorship.
How does this fit into the last few years of social movements and
clashes with authority in Chile? Did anyone see this coming?
No one saw this coming, nor that it would spread so far. People in
Santiago did feel like tension was building, but not in the sense of
social revolt. Rather, it was seen more in the aggressions between
people—people having to commute for hours after their work or school
day, fed up with having to squeeze tightly into a packed train or bus,
overwhelmed with exhaustion. This anger and exhaustion manifested itself
in conflicts between the exploited. For example, blaming and fighting
other people on the train or bus, or scapegoating immigrants and the
like, creating a daily experience of hostility, but no political group
or organization was prepared for this kind of widespread revolt.
Since last week, there have been calls for fare-dodging (evasiĂłn) and
sabotaging public transportation in response to the 30-peso fare hike.
That wasn’t anything new. Whenever there are fare hikes, you see this
kind of call for action. What’s different this time is we’re in spring,
whereas past fare increases have been implemented in the middle of the
summer without much of a response.
Beginning on Monday, October 14, organized and combative high school
students began collective fare-dodging actions after they got out of
school. These were massive and very effective. The Metro’s security
guards weren’t ready for it, so the kids were able to freely hop the
turnstiles and also hold open the gates for other commuters. On Tuesday,
October 15, the collective evasiones grew even larger and included even
more high schools. By Wednesday, October 16, it wasn’t only the schools
with a militant reputation that were involved. Lots of schools in poorer
neighborhoods outside the city center got in on the action too, and
that’s where Metro security guards began clubbing students. This was
truly the spark, and it made the high schoolers even more resolute in
their struggle. They organized mass fare-dodging evasiones for later
that afternoon (in Santiago, students get out of school a couple of
hours before the workday is over) and more and more people joined in—if
only because most people needed to get home and didn’t mind saving a
little bit of money on their commute. On Thursday, October 17, the
response from the authorities and the Metro was to close certain
stations, inhibiting people from being able to get home. Squadrons of
police also began to occupy Metro stations, contributing to even more
conflict and, through it, the destruction of metro infrastructure. In
some cases, by sheer numbers alone, people were able to expel police
from the metro stations.
On Friday, October 18 there was confrontation from the beginning of the
workday on. Metro stations opened with more security guards and more
police than usual, but people still staged mass evasiones, and in many
cases were successful in getting onto the platforms. The day went on as
usual until the end of the school day. Once school was out, the whole
thing got out of anyone’s control. There was confrontation and combat
all over the city. Metro stations were closed. Students occupied the
tracks and destroyed Metro and bus infrastructure such as turnstiles.
Three entire Metro lines were shut down. People began to do battle with
the police, and a variety of conflict zones between people and police
sprung up around the city.
Buses were burnt and used as barricades on major thoroughfares. Bus
stops were torched. Even more fuel (proverbial and literal) was put on
the fire as people began getting out of work for the weekend. Thanks to
the almost complete halt of metro and bus travel within the city, masses
and masses of people were out on foot—voluntarily and involuntarily
adding to the numbers in the street conflicts. The police were losing
ground and, as night fell, they began to attack with tear gas and water
cannons. In retreat, the police fell back to the higher class
neighborhoods to ensure the revolt didn’t threaten the centers of
wealth. The people, however, did not fall back, and went even further:
looting and burning banks, supermarkets, corporate chain stores,
pharmacies, metro stations, privatized health care offices, and
government offices.
Ever since the evasiones started, everyone has been excited to support
it, since it’s a tactic that anyone can use. There’s still a sense among
the people that this has been a historic moment, at least in the social
consciousness, and for the majority of people the revolt has put a smile
on their face (not something you see often in Santiago). Although many
haven’t agreed with some of the forms of struggle, the sound of
cacerolazos rang out throughout the city late into the night.
All this led the government to declare, at 2 am Saturday morning, a
State of Exception in the province of Santiago, which included
mobilization of the armed forces and preparation for their deployment on
the streets. The night went on with more burning and looting. The
government made a mistake thinking that the announcement of troops on
the streets would calm things down.
At noon on Saturday, October 19, more cacerolazos were called for, as
well as protests in the main plazas of various neighborhoods, in protest
of the military presence and repression (rather than just the fare
hike). The soldiers escalated things by pointing their guns, loaded with
live ammunition, at people, leading to more rioting. Masses of people
took to the streets in cities where a State of Exception had not been
called, for example ValparaĂso, ConcepciĂłn, Coquimbo, and Puerto Montt.
This led to even more looting and, in response, more States of Emergency
and curfews declared, to begin at 10 pm Saturday night. In large part,
the curfew was ignored and people stayed in the streets late into the
night. Looting and burning continued.
At least three people have been found dead in the ashes of one looted
supermarket, and there is news of many protesters injured by police.
There are so many videos of police and military violence circulating.
It’s difficult to say with certainty how many protesters have been
injured because the news is flooded with police press releases about how
many police were injured, without even mentioning the demonstrators they
have hurt, hiding the true level of their repression. However, the
number of injured demonstrators is definitely in the hundreds, including
people hit by clubs, tear gas canisters shot at people’s bodies and
heads, people hit at close range by rubber bullets, people run over by
police vehicles, and so on.
This is still going on as I write and neither the police nor the armed
forces seem to have taken control. They moved the curfew up tonight
[Sunday, October 20], to 7 pm and fake news is circulating about
shortages of food and basic goods in order to frighten the population.
I believe that since the beginning of this revolt, the students have
been filled with a spirit of liberation and confrontation, which, thanks
to compañeros who have combatted police in the past and destroyed the
symbols of capital, has generated a collective unconsciousness in which,
during moments like this, people know to attack authority. This has been
demonstrated by the fact that the majority of the businesses targeted
have been large multinational chains like Walmart, which itself has had
around 80 stores looted and 10 burnt throughout the country. It is also
seen in the widespread use of the anarchist symbol on walls, especially
amongst the combative youth.
October 21, We Move on to the General Strike for Everything
One week ago, when the subway fare in Santiago reached the stratospheric
price of 830 Chilean pesos (USD 1.20), the unbridled student youth
proletariat—which has the virtue of denying this world in practice,
refusing any kind of dialogue with power—launched an offensive calling
for the “mass fare-dodging,” self-organizing a gigantic movement of
disobedience that instantly earned a tremendous backing among our class,
since this means of public transport is used by at least 3 million
people daily. The State responded by sending hundreds of riot police to
protect the stations, provoking severe confrontations in the subway
system, which left hundreds of people wounded and detained.
On Friday, October 18, the rupture occurred: during a new day of
protests against the fare hike, Santiago’s subway lines began to close
completely, one by one, starting at 3 pm. This caused an unprecedented
collapse in the metropolitan urban transport system. That day, the spark
was ignited and the proletarian class demonstrated its power, as
thousands of people threw took to the streets, overwhelming the
repressive forces and staging major riots in downtown Santiago that
surpassed any forecast. The corporate building of ENEL (an electrical
company operating in Chile) burned in flames and several subway stations
suffered the same fate. The Capitalist State showed its true face to the
population, decreeing a “state of emergency”, which meant that the
military was brought out for the first time since the end of the
Dictatorship as a result of a social conflict. From that night on,
nothing will ever be the same.
On noon Saturday, a call to meet at Plaza Italia, in downtown Santiago,
quickly led to a general revolt with insurrectional features that
reached every corner of the city, despite the strong military presence
on the streets. And literally, the uprising moved on to all of the
cities in the Chilean region. Like an oil stain, it began to spread with
cacerolazos (pot-banging), barricades, attacks on government buildings,
sabotage of infrastructure strategic to the circulation of capital (toll
plazas and fare meters on highways, 80 subway stations partially
destroyed and 11 totally reduced to ashes, dozens of buses burned,
etc.), 130 bank branches damaged, 250 ATMs destroyed, some attacks on
police stations and a military facility in Iquique, and what has most
irritated the ruling class: the looting of supermarket chains and large
malls.
In this scenario, which for us has been a party, in which the
proletariat is self-organizing and facing its conditions of extreme
precariousness, the “state of emergency” has been extended to
approximately a dozen cities that have joined the fight, which have also
faced a relentless “curfew” controlled at gunpoint by the military and
police vermin that currently stand at 10,500 troops who have the green
light to shoot to kill.
The sacrosanct status of private property was radically questioned by
tens of thousands of proletarians who supplied themselves with
everything they could at most supermarkets and large stores, which have
been thoroughly plundered, and in many cases burned, as a terrified
bourgeoisie looks on and constantly calls on its representatives to
crush without reservation what they call “a small group of violent
elements and vandals.” However, the reality is far from this, since,
although they deny it continuously, this is not the action of a
minority, but a massive phenomenon that has been expressing itself with
irrepressible force.
Those of us who have been stripped of everything and survive as we can,
indebted, without being able to make ends meet, have affirmed in
practice that we have no reason to pay to access what we need to meet
our needs. The reproduction of the commercialized daily survival in this
way of life imposed upon us is, at all times, subordinated to the
accumulation of capital by the bourgeoisie, at the expense of wage
laborers and the life of misery that we must endure day in and day out.
We have done nothing more than expropriate what belongs to us and what
has robbed us our entire lives, and this they cannot bear. In short,
widespread revolt means claiming ourselves as human beings and denying
ourselves as merchandise.
The press has played a crucial role in the defense of “common sense” and
channeling what is called “public opinion,” that is, the dominant logic
of the capitalist system, according to which material things and the
production of goods matter more than human lives, emphasizing time and
again the defense of “public order,” “individual rights,”, “private
property,” and “social peace” to justify the massacre being promoted by
the capitalists and the most reactionary sectors of society.
Through the misrepresentation and/or concealment of information, the
spreading of lies and false stories, the criminalization of social
subversion, the entire press has shown itself to be an accomplice to
State terrorism: they must assume the consequences for all this. Some
examples of this include the following:
forces, and not reporting repeated allegations of “excessive use of
force in arrests, child abuse, mistreatment, blows to faces and thighs,
torture, undressing of women and men and sexual abuse,” as indicated by
the National Institute of Human Rights (NHRI).
some municipalities such as La Pintana, Puente Alto, among others, which
is totally false. People have reported on social and alternative media
that these have been plainclothes police who have tried to provoke
infighting within our class.
also affect private homes and small businesses, when there have been
just a few completely isolated events of this, which our class must
firmly reject.
and “violent” protesters, betting on the division and isolation of the
most radicalized elements that are part of the movement and that are
trying to promote an anti-capitalist orientation in the development of
the revolt.
have directly affected several municipalities in the southern sector of
Santiago, which are “suspiciously” also the places where the combat
against the state and capital have developed in the most direct manner
against their institutions and where authority is most flatly despised.
As President Piñera declares that “we are at war against a powerful
enemy that respects nothing and nobody,” the despicable Andres Chadwick,
Minister of the Interior, made a brief statement on television claiming
that 7 people had “died”—and not been killed at the hands of the
state—without offering any further details. We who have been present in
the struggle and coordinating with comrades in different parts of the
country know that the number of the dead is much larger. Videos and
photographs have been shared on social media and counter-information
websites, which are being systematically removed from the internet,
showing people killed by soldiers and cops in various places where they
are resisting. At least by our count—which we are still unable to
confirm due to the deliberate campaign of concealment and misinformation
of the capitalist state—this figure is 16 people: 1 person in Quinta
Normal, 2 in San Bernardo, 5 in Renca and 2 in La Pintana, who died as a
result of fires during the looting, 1 person killed in Lampa after being
deliberately run over by the police, 1 by military bullets in Colina, 3
in La Serena, and 1 in Pedro Aguirre Cerda who died as a result of
police repression. We know that this partial assessment might grow even
further, since as we are quickly writing this text, severe
confrontations continue under the curfew with the military, cops, and
undercover police in several places within the Chilean region.
Tomorrow, Monday, October 21, a diverse grouping of mass organizations
have called for a general strike, the first one that may be highly
effective, directly affecting production, due to the collapse of the
transportation system, at least in the city of Santiago. The state is
doing everything possible to ensure that “people go to work”: they have
partially enabled Line 1 of the subway system, they are trying to
reinforce the bus service, and they have called on the population to
show “solidarity” by helping their neighborhoods reach their jobs. The
capitalist class is only interested in producing for themselves; we are
only useful to them for producing and moving their merchandise and
increasing their accumulation of capital. For this reason, we are
calling on people to not go to work and to actively participate in the
strike, as the subway workers’ union has, due to the “police and
military repression.” In addition, we believe it is important to spread
the following perspectives:
water, and the satisfaction of our needs: that is the state’s game, to
divide and conquer. To solve our problems, we must organize ourselves in
our communities, there is no other solution.
themselves as our “representatives,” to appropriate the struggle and sit
down to negotiate with the state to extinguish the fire of the revolt,
attempting to steer the resolution of the conflict towards cosmetic,
superficial reforms that do not aim to eradicate the root of the
problems that afflict our class.
resistance, debate, meeting, and self-organization, places to gather
food and medicine, and spaces to assist our wounded.
is developing, in order to collectively decide the direction of the
ongoing revolt.
prosecuted for their participation in the revolt.
TOWARDS THE GENERAL STRIKE FOR EVERYTHING!
LET’S MOVE TOWARDS LIFE!
-Some communist/anarchist proletarians participating in the revolt