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A crowd filled Plaza Italia again in Santiago, Chile, on November 8, 2019 REUTERS / Pablo Sanhueza

After more than three weeks of uninterrupted protests, mobilization has not waned in Chile. More than a hundred thousand people were gathered again Friday in Santiago, the capital, and in several cities of the country, to protest against inequalities and ask for profound social reforms.

With our correspondent in Santiago de Chile, Justine Fontaine

The rally followed President Sebastian Piñera's security announcements on Thursday. Measures obviously unwelcome by the protesters.

Under a large flag of Chile, or with smoke and fireworks, a huge crowd of demonstrators was gathered again in Plaza Italia, in the center of Santiago. On the sidelines of the peaceful demonstration in the square, a building of a private university was burned a few hundred meters away, and a church was ransacked.

This Thursday, Sebastian Piñera had announced a series of measures including to increase the penalties against thugs and looters. He has also convened a national security council, a rare decision in the context of a social movement, which gives many Chileans the feeling that they are not being listened to by the government.

But on Friday the critics also came from President Sebastian Piñera's own camp. At the end of a meeting with the executive at the Moneda Palace, a conservative MP called in front of the press to deepen the social measures. The mayor of a disadvantaged municipality in the Santiago region, also on the right, said that the executive had not taken the full measure of the problem.

The Chilean president has passed him in front of the journalists without answering their questions.