Overview

The 2019 Chilean Protests refers to ongoing demonstrations against a public transportation fare hike that protesters believe is indicative of wide-spread economic inequality throughout Chile. These demonstrations, which began in Santiago, Chile, the capital city, soon spread to other cities, as violent and non-violent forms of protest were met with police intervention.

Background

On October 4th, the Panel of Experts of Public Transport announced that there would be a 4% fare increase for public transportation in Santiago, focusing primarily on the city's subway system. In response, students planed a mass fare evasion campaign to protest the increase. On October 7th, 2019, to combat a new fare hike in the country's subway a fare evasion campaign began.^[1]

Over the next few days, the protests grew. Protestors continued to demonstrate in subway stations by jumping turnstiles and evading fares while disrupting service. As such, numerous subway stations were shut down due to reports of violent demonstrations. The trend continued throughout the week as clashes between protesters and police resulted in more than 130 arrests and as much as 500 million pesos ($700,000) in damages.^[2]

On October 18th, demonstrations escalated. Students had begun burning and damaging stations, resulting in the closure of all six lines in Santiago. The Washington Post^[3] reports that by Friday, October 18th, "The protests had turned violent with thousands of students burning subway stations and damaging dozens of others, and some set fire to a high-rise energy company building. Officials reported 156 police officers and 11 civilians injured and more than 300 people arrested."

At the end of the day, Chile's Piñera president declared a state of emergency.

The following week continued in a similar fashion as numerous businesses closed due to the demonstrations, resulting in numerous arrests, injuries and deaths.

On October 22nd, President Piñera announced that he would be reforming "pension system, health and medicines, minimum income and electricity rates."^[4] He said:

In the face of the legitimate needs and social demands of the citizens, we have received with humility and clarity the message that the Chileans have given us.

It is true that our problems have not occurred in recent days, it had been accumulating decades ago. But it is also true that different governments were not able to recognize this situation in all its magnitude. This situation of inequality of abuse that has meant a genuine and authentic expression.
I recognize this lack of vision and I apologize to our countrymen.

Online Reaction

Much of the demonstrations were organized and promoted on social media. For example, Instagram ^[5] user @cursedin shared numerous videos and photographs taken from the demonstrations. These videos resulted in tens of thousands of views and likes (examples below).

On October 17th, 2019, Twitter user @PaoladrateleSUR tweeted a video of the student protests. They tweeted, "HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS RETURN TO TAKE THE METRO STATIONS IN SANTIAGO DE CHILE FOR USERS TO TRAVEL FOR FREE AFTER THE PASSAGE INCREASE OVER 1 DOLLAR, ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE TRANSPORTS IN THE REGION. CALLED MASS EVASIONS ARE EXPECTED FOR THE NEXT DAYS." The post received more than 2 million views, 5,100 likes and 2,500 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below).

CIENTOS DE ESTUDIANTES VUELVEN A TOMARSE LAS ESTACIONES DE METRO EN SANTIAGO DE CHILE PARA QUE LOS USUARIOS VIAJEN GRATIS TRAS EL ALZA DEL PASAJE QUE SUPERA 1 DÓLAR, UNO DE LOS TRANSPORTES MÁS CAROS DE LA REGIÓN. LLAMADOS A EVASIONES MASIVAS SE ESPERAN PARA LOS PRÓXIMOS DÍAS. pic.twitter.com/95rOk8rR70

— Paola Dragnic (@PaoladrateleSUR) October 18, 2019

On October 21st, 2019, Redditor ^[6] RippleDelete shared a video of form the protests in the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit (shown below). They asked the group, "I just saw a video showing riot police in the street, but I haven't heard anything about this on the news?" The post received more than 5,600 points (97% upvoted) and 195 comments.

Redditor^[7] georgeoftheandes responded:

Chilean here. The rioting started with a call to evade the payment of the subway – a state owned company – after a panel of experts decided the price had to increase. The price after the hike was set to $830. However, the subway can operate, at a profit, with $600 and the difference is to subsidize the buses of the private concessionaires which are usually derelict machines. The subway was made the core of the public transportation system in 2003 and it has been bad and insufficient since then.

Search Interest

External References