...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeds places like Honduras and El Salvador, and a significant proportion of the populace as refugeed to Colombia and points south...are playing a role in ongoing violent protests.
Chileans began taking to the streets of Santiago in October, nominally in response to a proposed hike in subway prices in the nation’s capital. As Sáinz explains, demands for social change amid growing economic concerns have led to a significant reform process ‐ which has sent many of the peaceful protesters home satisfied, leaving violent rioters in the streets.
While peaceful protesters marched and chanted, violent rioters have engaged in mass acts of arson, including burning down subway stations, major office buildings, and churches.
The protests erupted almost simultaneously with major political upheaval throughout the country. Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil have seen similar riots. The governments of Ecuador and Bolivia have revealed the arrests of dozens of Cuban and Venezuelan citizens participating in violent street activities such as looting, bombing, and blockading major streets.
| Have they indeed. How very interesting. |
Sáinz, a member of the center-right National Rejuvenation Party working on legislation to ensure justice in cases of street violence, told Breitbart News that there are legitimate protesters among those demonstrating and they have conveyed real concerns about the state of the country.
"There have been very massive peaceful protests that have to do with social unrest," he explained. "Our country in the past 30 years has had very important economic development [that] has translated into a very, very significant reduction in poverty rates, from 50 percent rates to less than 10 percent and has created the emergence of a new middle class that has access to education, to consumer goods in a very important way.
That middle class, he noted, "today also suffers the effects of debt, effects of insecurity in facing life contingencies like diseases and such, so there is there civil unrest, that has to do with social conditions, that has expressed itself these days."
"But parallel to that, and taking advantage of that circumstance, there has been very well organized, systematic, very violent activity," he continued, "including significant acts like the burning of Santiago metro stations, the burning of important buildings, and also very active street actions, building barricades to block traffic, organizing looting to supermarkets, many of which were later burned."
Sáinz noted that the government has begun responding to legitimate concerns. Among the projects in the works is a complete overhaul of the Chilean constitution, put into place in 1989.
"As a result ... those that are remaining in the streets are the violent sector," he said. "We suspect that, behind that organizing and planning there is a foreign hand. For now, we have detained many Cuban and Venezuelan citizens, but we also know that the true heads of this, the ones leading and organizing this, are not committing the acts themselves, so we are waiting to untangle what is behind this wave of violence."