Incidents in Chile marking 49th anniversary of Allende coup leave at least eight officers injured

At least eight agents of the Carabineros de Chile have been injured in Santiago following violent incidents during the commemoration of the 49th anniversary of the coup d’état against Salvador Allende.

Chilean authorities have added that 27 people are under arrest and at least ten commercial premises have been looted during Sunday night.

An Army spokesman, General Carlos Gonzalez Gallegos, has explained that about 5,000 people have demonstrated peacefully. However, some hooded persons, while passing by the Government Palace, “threw innumerable incendiary elements against police personnel.”

These elements correspond to Molotov type incendiary bombs, blunt objects and fireworks, according to sources of the portal Biobio Chile. Later, the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, raised the number of Molotov cocktails thrown by the demonstrators to 150.

Likewise, about twenty police vehicles have been attacked by gunfire, while four other Carabineros barracks have also been the target of attacks by the demonstrators, according to Canal 13 television channel.

The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, has condemned the 9/11 incidents, indicating that “democracy is built with dialogue, respecting those who think differently, and never with violence.”

“If we want to move forward, it has to be in peace and without violence,” he said, noting that “I wish all those who claim this day understood that.”

Thousands of people have paid tribute this Sunday to former President Salvador Allende on the 49th anniversary of the military coup that overthrew his government in 1973 and installed the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.