In Chile, due to riots, they introduced the state of emergency in a number of cities popular with tourists. On radio Sputnik, the leading researcher at the Center for Political Studies of the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Harlamenko, commented on the situation.
The authorities of Chile against the backdrop of the riots have introduced a state of emergency in a number of cities popular with tourists, reports 24 Horas TV channel with reference to the Ministry of the Interior.
We are talking about the Valparaiso region, which is located on the Pacific coast and attracts many travelers with its beaches, as well as the cities of Talca, Chillan and Chillan Viejo, Temuco, Padre las Casas and Punta Arenas. The latter is located on the shores of the Strait of Magellan, from where tourists like to set off on ferries and small vessels to watch the life of penguins and whales.
According to BioBioChile radio, a state of emergency has also been introduced in the Antofagasta region, which is located in the Atacama Desert, where many tourist routes start.
On October 6, the country increased subway fares by 30 Chilean pesos ($ 0.042). This led to protests. At first, peaceful actions by October 18 grew into clashes with law enforcement – people set up barricades, knocked on pots in disagreement with the increase in prices, caused damage to many metro stations, set fire to one of the shopping centers, buses. On October 19, armored vehicles were pulled into the center of Santiago. Protests in the country continue.
On radio Sputnik, a leading researcher at the Center for Political Studies of the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Kharlamenko, noted that the large-scale crisis is observed not only in Chile, but the reason was the actions of the authorities, who are forced to make concessions to international creditors and fulfill their conditions.
“This is the result of the dictatorship of international financial institutions, in particular the IMF and the World Bank. Hence the synchronism of these processes, by the way, not only in Latin America. We see, for example, in Lebanon, in a number of other countries, absolutely identical processes. As a result of the fact that on the whole, the world economy is balancing on the brink of a new recession, and this is recognized by the IMF and other structures, they find no other way out, like at the expense of the working people of those countries that are in debt dependence and are forced to agree to any conditions. In addition, the political conditions in most of these countries, where the right-wingers came to power, the forces of neoliberal ideology, as in Chile, also contribute to this. The authorities vainly hoped to implement these agreements without serious upheaval. They overestimated their strength here”, – said Alexander Kharlamenko.
According to him, it is now difficult to predict how far this situation can go.
“It’s hard to predict. The same thing happened in Ecuador the other day, and there it was necessary to cancel these measures. But in Ecuador, the government has a partner for dialogue – the Confederation of Native American Nationalities of Ecuador. In Chile, it is not known how organized these protests are, whether there is political a structure with which to start a dialogue … There has been accumulation of irritation for many years, not even one generation, while international financial institutions, instead of reacting in a balanced way, anticipating possible consequences, chopping off the shoulder, it’s possible trying to provoke the establishment of a new wave of dictatorships in the region. Therefore, we have what we have”, – the expert concluded.