Santiago de Chile (AFP)
The street is the scene of their anger, the walls of Santiago the support of their claims. In Chile, between graffiti and stencils, the capital bears the mark of protest, the demonstrators competing creatively to put in words and images their discontent.
None of the eight kilometers of Alameda has been spared. All along the main avenue of Santiago that leads to Plaza Italia, the nerve center of all the demonstrations since October 19, the buildings are tagged.
"They murder, they rape, they torture", "Chile in a state of rebellion", "Barricades and kisses", "Shout for those whom the government has gagged", "They drink the blood of the people". .. The Chilean people are emphatic to denounce the unprecedented social crisis that is shaking the country.
The sidewalks, the facades, the macadam, even in residential neighborhoods, all are whitewashed, all became political in less than a month.
With sayings and graffiti, the Chileans are remaking the world and their country. "Normality is our slavery", "Eteins la télé", "Tremble injustice when struggling those who have nothing to lose", "Go to victory or conquer". And they claim a "New Constitution!"
Demonstrating great inventiveness, the protesters use literary figures such as the chiasm ("The democracy of the rich, the dictatorship of the poor", "Without fear, the people will win, without compromise, the people will win"), the anaphora ("If revolution is necessary, revolution is possible"), the antithesis ("bullets against cries"), the oxymoron ("Stop the exploitation of the land, free the water" etc.
Target favorite of the opponents, the head of state Sebastian Piñera is represented on a poster, sitting on a time bomb, with the caption: "You acai tiempo, viene el estallido" ("Your hour has come, arrives the explosion").
"Military, assassins", "Anti-Pacos social club", "They are killing us" ("our estan matando"). Besides the president, the police are also among the most frequently targeted, while there are many accusations of police violence and that, for the first time since the end of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), thousands of soldiers patrol the streets.
- Targets of choice -
Some places are more covered than others, such as institutional buildings, ministries, administrations, banking agencies, universities with exorbitant registration fees or even pharmacies, accused of having an agreement on the prices of drugs.
Among the most recurrent slogans, "No + AFPs" ("Down AFPs") in reference to pension fund administrators, private financial organizations responsible for making payroll savings to ensure a funded pension, strongly criticized .
On the door of a church, "Violators" (the country was shaken by series of pedophilia scandals in his Catholic Church, in the wake of the controversial visit of Pope Francis in 2018), "free abortion" ( it is only in 2017 that Chile has ended almost 30 years of total prohibition of abortion, now authorized in rare cases).
- Camouflage -
"We are not at war," some say President Piñera, who said the opposite two days after the riots began.
On the walls of the very traditional Catholic University, a painting in more vivid color than the top of the building betrays a recent camouflage, and it is not uncommon to see the morning tradesmen or residents, roll of paint to the hand, trying to cover the inscriptions.
A building remains free of inscriptions: under guard, the presidential palace of Moneda, in front of which thousands of protesters pass every day, displays a disturbing and brilliant whiteness.
© 2019 AFP