Deadly violence and protests over living costs and inequality continue in Santiago, Chile, despite President Sebastian Piñera’s announcement that ministers will suspend plans to raise subway fares. This has been occurring for the past 7 days. All international flights to Chile were cancelled from October 19-22 due to the extremely violent protests in the streets of Santiago. People in Chile do not have access to even buy milk in their supermarkets or even in their local neighborhood stores. There is a big inequality in Chile between the rich and the poor. Protestors are now famous for saying, “No dejaremos a los ricos tranquilos mientras el pobre no tenga pan.” This translates to, “We will not leave the rich alone until the poor have their bread.” The majority of these protesters are extreme leftists protesting the ways of the Chilean economy and government.
In my opinion, the people of Chile have a right to protest as does everybody, but not in the violent way that they are doing it. Chile is the richest country in South America with a per capita income of $24,588. Poverty in Chile is not a very common thing you see unlike in other countries in South America such as Brasil, Peru, and Venezuela. So, I think that the Chilean people are being way too chaotic and they are overreacting about their situation when their neighboring countries are going through years of economic inequality and extreme poverty. They 100% have the right to protest, but not the right to violently protest.