14ymedio, Houston, Jorge Luis León, 15 March 2024 — Chile is a beautiful and vigorous country – I saw this when I visited my Chilean family in 1996 – but the political instability and constant protests that shook the country distorted that beauty. The Estallido Social, a social outburst that lasted from October 2019 to March 2021, has been one of the most violent in recent years. Many say this was the moment of the “awakening of Chile”; others describe the protests as a “big mistake” that weakened the country enormously. For me, the outburst exceeded the limits that Chilean democracy could endure.
The trigger was the increase in public transport rates, later joined by demands for reform in the health and education sectors, as well as with pensions. Although they were all fair claims, the way of expressing them through citizen “revolts,” in which the current President Gabriel Boric also participated, left much to be desired.
The violence covered Santiago and quickly spread to other regions of the country. The “awakening” left about 34 dead, in addition to thousands wounded and arrested. On the economic front, the losses amounted to 3.3 billion dollars, between 100,000 a