• Q&A: The keys to violence in Chile, from idyllic economy to vulnerable society

Chile looks in the mirror and can't believe what it sees. It is so unusual what happens and so evident the loss of control by the power (and not only the president), that the confusion is deep and general. Also among journalists: days ago a TV presenter showed her mortification live by informing and giving her opinion "from a privileged situation" and not living "what many people live". A psychiatrist came to his aid to remind him of what his profession consists of: "It is that to analyze you have to get away a little, and that does not mean losing empathy; it is the work of a journalist." Two days later, a passerby approached a chronicler and took control of the microphone to explain another important aspect of his work, the informative balance: "Stop showing incidents and violence throughout the day and without pause. Chile is not just that , many good things are happening in Chile today. "

The passer-by was right: many things are happening in Chile, and the most obvious in recent days is that violence begins to subside, although 17 regions of the country are still in a state of emergency , there are more than 3,000 detainees, 18 dead, hundreds of injured and serious allegations of abuse by security forces. In return, the peaceful protest does not stop growing. It was seen this Thursday in Valparaíso, a city on the Pacific Ocean that is also the headquarters of the National Congress. Parliamentarians have offices in Santiago, but they travel more than an hour from the capital to meet. What they found this time was unexpected: a demonstration of truckers stationed at the doors of the Congress building . By sounding the horn incessantly and mixed with city dwellers who beat their pans, they turned the place into a pandemonium. From the steps of the Congress and separated from the protesters by a fence, the parliamentarians looked at them in awe. Many of them recorded with their mobile phones the protest of their represented. What do you think that politicians are watching and recording? They asked one of the protest leaders. The response was devastating: "They are scared of fear."

The eschatological description applies to the entire Chilean political and business corporation, not only to members of Congress. The unleashed dynamics are fluid and uncontrollable, and in its most extreme manifestations it reminds of the "let all go" that thundered during the Argentine economic and social collapse of 2001 and 2002. If last Friday the student protests broke out over a rise in the ticket barely 3.75%, seven days later the picture is very different: the protesters are many more, Chileans of all social classes and ages who are taking advantage of the moment to channel frustrations and repressed demands for a long time .

In Plaza Italia, the nerve center of the demonstrations, you can see everything: from a non-negligible number of people who stand out because they protest naked, to flags of Spain and Catalonia. The demonstrations are peaceful and at the moment very festive: if this Thursday you saw a great legend that said: "We are the people and the carnival", days ago electronic music moved the masses in Concepción. It was a rave in full sun and in which, as an exception, the hydrant cars did not throw water to disperse people, but to associate with the party.

Popular pressure is achieving unthinkable things: if up to 20 years ago Chileans had to work, by law, 49 hours per week , today they claim to lower the current 45 to 40. Sebastián Piñera's government had turned a deaf ear to that claim, which he described as "unconstitutional," but this Thursday the Chamber of Deputies took the first step in approving the project.

Paralysis and hardness

After the paralysis and initial hardness he showed, Piñera is trying to get on the wave of the crisis and take advantage of it in his favor, but it could be late for a president who ordered the first curfew in the democratic era . Many of the protesters claim that the measures are "insufficient" and arrive late, something that coincides with much of the opposition. "They are cosmetic ads that will not end the demonstrations," said communist deputy Daniel Nunez. And the big problem that is growing now, and whose dimension there is still no certainty, is that of abuses by state forces.

The president received on Wednesday Sergio Micco, director of the National Institute of Human Rights (NHRI), who transferred his "grave concern about the violation of human rights committed during these days of protests." Micco, head of an agency that is autonomous, although financed with public funds, made serious complaints: torture, shooting at civilians, physical and verbal abuse, sexual violence . That the military are today responsible for public order in the streets is a problem, because democracy does not tolerate the uses of the dictatorship that ended just 29 years ago. Many of these behaviors are still alive among not a few of its personnel.

"Piñera should clearly convey to Chilean security forces that they must respect human rights and ensure that the agents involved in abuses are investigated," said José Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch for the Americas . Michelle Bachelet, former Chilean president and high commissioner of the UN for Human Rights, will send a mission to the country to investigate the abuses.

The situation is delicate, because the president has already sent more than 20,000 security forces to the streets , between the military and the police , and despite this he is increasingly far from having a civil society empowered and excited about what he feels able to achieve

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