14ymedio, Havana, November 18 2019 — Chile deported 50 foreigners from the country, including 30 Cubans and nine Venezuelans for staying irregularly in the South American nation, or having committed crimes in the recent protests that have shaken the country, according to the O’Higgins Region government.
“Violence has undoubtedly been the worst part of the recent demonstrations in Chile. It’s a reality that is no different for the O’Higgins region, despite the call from different sectors, including the citizens themselves, to put an end to this action and promote a social agenda that meets the legitimate demands that triggered the crisis that the country is going through,” explains an official statement.
“In this context, five out of the total of 50 foreign citizens were detained and put at the disposal of the justice system for looting and, as well, for being involved in riots, attacking the authorities and erecting barricades,” the government’s report adds.
Protests broke out in Chile on October 18 after an increase in Santiago’s Metro fare. Since then, there have been repeated demonstrations against inequality, poverty and in favor of a new Constitution that would take the place of the one inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Some 23 people have died since the crisis erupted, and more than 2,300 civilians have been injured.
In the first few days of the protests the government decreed a state of emergency and a curfew in an attempt to curb the most severe protests since the return of democracy in 1990. In recent weeks there have been multiple cases of immense violence, with looting, fires, destruction of public property and bloody clashes between demonstrators and police forces, creating a further questioning of the repression.
Translated by: Rafael Osorio
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