Police try to quell violence on Chilean coup's anniversary

Police try to quell violence on coup's anniversary

Associated Press
September 12, 2006

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- Police early Tuesday worked to contain violence that broke out after dark as Chile was marking Monday's 33rd anniversary of the military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

In Santiago and three other cities, scores were injured and arrested during protests that authorities said were not politically motivated.

"One can clearly see that these people are criminals whose aim is [to] cause damage and steal," Deputy Interior Minister Felipe Harboe said.

Authorities said 50 people were injured, including a 6-year-old girl who was hit in the head by a stray bullet while in her home in Puente Alto, a city southeast of Santiago. Around the country, 237 people were arrested, and 40 officers were injured.

Violence has been common in recent years on the anniversary of the coup, but the overnight clashes appeared especially serious. Harboe said several shops were looted and a school and a bank branch were set on fire in Santiago.

Tuesday, the anniversary of the 1973 coup in which Pinochet toppled elected Marxist President Salvador Allende, had been mostly calm, except for isolated clashes between police and demonstrators at a local university campus.

Violence started shortly before midnight when masked protesters erected barricades on several avenues and started throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at police and at passing vehicles.

Police Col. Gaston Sanzana said firearms, including automatic rifles, were used by some of the protesters.

Police used tear gas and water cannons to try to disperse the demonstrations, but the protesters repeatedly regrouped.

On Sunday, a march of thousands of people to a local cemetery to pay tribute to the 3,197 people who were killed for political reasons under Pinochet's 1973-1990 rule also ended in violent clashes, which the government and organizers blamed on "anarchistic infiltrators."