translated from Spanish: Carabineros confirms that he will keep more than a thousand officials every Friday in Baquedano Square

The chief general of the Metropolitan Zone, Marcelo Araya, announced that the strategy of having more than 1,000 police officers sheltering Baquedano Square will continue every Friday. “This is a surrounding strategy, where our staff is in the rings in motion dynamics. Previously we were distributed in parallel, in straight lines, by the perimeter rings of the sector. How many cops were there? There were about a thousand carabinieri on site, which is 15% more than there usually is,” Araya explained according to Cooperative. The general confirmed that it allowed himself to have fewer injured troops, only five “which is very low compared to other days” when there were about 30 injured policemen, and clarified that “this is not against demonstrations, it is against criminals who destroy and do not allow the normal functioning of the city.” In addition, there was less damage to public and private property, and the sector managed to normalize it at about 8:30 p.m. The latter is also a good step, given that the previous weeks the acts of violence stretched beyond 23:00 at night,” he said. General Araya said that “I wish we didn’t have to do it and thus allocate these resources elsewhere, but because of the serious changes to public order that are in place every week” this strategy will continue, and other measures: “Every week we will plan new ways of mobility,” he concluded.

Original source in Spanish