In Chile, the protest movement is growing despite the announcements of the President

The protest movement has not weakened in Chile, where the main unions and social actors have called for a general strike on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 October, despite the measures proposed Tuesday by President Sebastian Pinera to try to calm the street.

"LIVE THE STRIKE We say it loud and clear: enough price rises and abuses!", Tweeted Tuesday evening the Unitary Workers' Central (CUT), the main trade union confederation of the country.

With some 20 other workers 'and students' organizations, it condemns the presidential decision to impose a state of emergency on most of the country, to resort to curfew and to involve the armed forces.

Some 20,000 military and police have been deployed in the country, for the first time since the end of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

🚨 Camiones con militares recorren Santiago's Calles. Esta foto corresponds to Plaza Baquedano. pic.twitter.com/UGvDQ0jFw5

"We ask the government to restore the democratic institutional order, which means in the first place the abandonment of the state of emergency and the return of the military to their barracks," say the unions in a statement released Tuesday.

18 dead, including one child

For over a week and the announcement of a rise in the price of the metro ticket, the violent social crisis has killed 18 people, including a child of 4 years. On Wednesday, the Interior Ministry announced the death of a child and an adult when a drunk motorist crashed into a group of protesters, while another person died after being, according to his family, struck by the police.

Tuesday, Sebastian Pinera had asked "pardon" to his compatriots and proposed measures such as the increase of 20% minimum pension and the freezing of electricity tariffs or a rise in the minimum wage.

But trade unionists demand of the government a social agenda prepared jointly to serve as a basis for a final exit from the crisis.

In Santiago, under a state of emergency with a dozen other cities, the event will leave Plaza Italia in the heart of the capital, where hundreds of thousands of Chileans have been demonstrating since Friday.

With AFP