Containment in Chile: new event for food aid

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Fifty residents of a popular neighborhood in Santiago de Chile, La Pintana, challenged compulsory confinement by demonstrating Wednesday to demand emergency food aid, at a time when the poorest Chileans are suffering from the arrest of the 'economic activity.

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In this traditionally working-class, disadvantaged and high-crime neighborhood, residents have challenged the confinement decreed since Friday in the capital. They protested with banners, burned barricades, pot concerts, and slogans that accuse the power of disregarding their fate.

"  Our neighborhood is one of the poorest in greater Santiago," recalls the mayor of La Pintana, Claudia Pizarro, at the microphone of Angelica Perez. With 14% of people living in overcrowded housing, we are experiencing this pandemic in a completely different way . The houses are only around 40 square meters, which is why we cannot isolate people. What we are experiencing today is a health crisis linked to an economic crisis. Initially, they gave a Covid-19 grant to families who were on the social register of households with the poorest 40% of the population in Chile. But we are working with completely outdated figures, which date from December 2019, and do not take into account the new social reality of the Covid-19. This is why we face widespread dissatisfaction. Premiums don't get to the people who need them. In addition, it is an individual aid of 65,000 pesos, just over 70 euros per person. It is below the poverty line.  "

Police and soldiers who came to the scene let the demonstrators, mainly women, protest on condition that it was on the sidewalks. The demonstrations left Monday from another district in the south of Santiago, El Bosque, degenerating into clashes.

The day before, President Sebastian Piñera, very unpopular, had however announced the distribution from the end of May of 2.5 million food parcels for his most disadvantaged citizens. He also promised food stamps, a measure that protesters deem insufficient.

The epidemic is growing in Chile, with a total of nearly 54,000 cases and 544 deaths.

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• Chile
• Coronavirus
• Poverty

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