During a march called in the central neighborhood of Central Station, a group of people shot at demonstrators who gathered to commemorate May Day, wounding three people.
One of them, a woman who worked for a community media outlet, was wounded in the skull and is at risk of death, while a fourth person was hit by a stone in the head, carabineros said.
During the march, protesters set up incendiary barricades, which could have sparked violence by a group of residents or workers in the neighborhood who fired the shots, according to the police institution’s account.
Two people were arrested, one of Venezuelan nationality and another Colombian, in what was the first International Labor Day in the streets after two years of virtual commemorations for the pandemic.
In the area there were also looting, burning of public transport stops and incendiary barricades, according to the Carabineros report.
Video via Twitter:@CarabPrCentral
The riots took place in a minority march called by the Central Clasista de Trabajadores, parallel to the most massive meeting normally convened by the Single Confederation of Workers (CUT), which was held in a nearby area.
Video via Twitter: @Murosyresisten
The cut meeting brought together hundreds of people who marched without incident from the central Plaza Italia through the Alameda, which crosses Santiago, with little presence of police officers.
The presidential delegate of the Metropolitan Region, Constanza Martínez, said that “as a government we want to express our total rejection and condemnation of the criminal acts that occurred during the day, as well as express our solidarity with the different victims and we also want to announce that we are going to present the different complaints from the Ministry of the Interior in coordination with the municipalities to follow those responsible and that these acts do not go unpunished.”
“We also believe that here there is a fundamental issue that has to do with disrupting criminal gangs that are taking over the spaces and for that we have to carry out a work that we know is urgent and that must aim not only at the control but that has disrupted these gangs and pursue the firepower that they have, therefore we will be working hard this week on this, these events cannot be repeated and we believe that as authorities we have to do everything on our part,” he added.
The mayor of Santiago, Irací Hassler, reported that they will file a complaint for public disorder and illegal possession of weapons. “It is a situation that does not give for more in terms of the need for arms control that we have in our country,” he said, according to La Tercera.
The mayor of Central Station, Felipe Muñoz, said for his part that “we are presenting the different municipalities different legal actions once and for all to remove these people from circulation. We have been raising it for months, this is an issue that exceeds the capacity that municipalities can have, greater control is required not only to have the support of the Carabineros, it is necessary to be able to investigate more in that sector, to be able to incorporate intelligence, to the different institutions “.
The event, which culminated in a musical show, was attended by several authorities, who highlighted popular demands such as the freezing of prices, the reform of the pension system and the increase in the minimum wage.
On this, the Minister of Labor, Jeanette Jara, announced that the increase in the minimum wage from 350,000 pesos to 400,000 pesos – proposed by the Executive weeks ago – will begin to govern retroactively from this Sunday, if approved in Parliament.
Other specific marches were held in regions such as coastal Valparaiso, which also passed without incident.
