Chile’s Pinera Plans to End State of Emergency on Sunday

(Bloomberg) -- Chilean President Sebastian Pinera said that he may on Sunday end the state of emergency he declared in the wake of mass protests nationwide that led to arson and looting shortly after the military announced an end to the curfew for the capital Santiago.

“I intend to lift the state of emergency at midnight next Sunday,” Pinera said in a televised address broadcast on all channels. “It is my intention that we start the week with full constitutional normality.”

Pinera had declared a state of emergency on Oct. 18 after demonstrations morphed into a series of arson attacks on subway stations in Santiago, accompanied by widespread looting. The state of emergency put commanders of Chile’s armed forces in charge of security in cities across the country. Three decades after the end of a brutal military dictatorship, Chileans again saw armored vehicles in the center of the capital. Pinera on Saturday asked his ministers to offer their resignations ahead of a cabinet reshuffle that will help meet “new demands.”

Thousands of people were arrested and at least 18 killed in the upheaval, which began with mass subway fare evasion as a protest against a 30-peso price increase and exploded into violence. According to the National Human Rights Institute, 585 people had been wounded and 2,948 have been arrested as of noon on Oct. 25. The Institute has filed 12 lawsuits against authorities for sexual violence including stripping detainees, groping and threats of rape. Police and the armed forces together were responsible for five deaths for which it plans to seek homicide charges, the institute said.

Pinera, in his brief speech on Saturday, first denounced the “brutal and destructive violence” before acknowledging the “message” sent by Chileans. “We have also heard the message of the citizens of Chile demanding a more just and socially inclusive country,” he said.

The armed forces said earlier Saturday that the curfew for the Santiago metropolitan area was ended after several days of “normalcy.”

Pinera asked Congress to approve the new social agenda his government submitted to address the country’s social and economic inequalities.

Since Pinera declared the state of emergency, thousands of people have taken to the streets of cities throughout Chile, mostly peacefully, to call for widespread changes including cheaper and better health care, reform of the pension system and a new government cabinet. Around 1 million people marched through Santiago on Friday.

“The march we all saw yesterday was huge, happy and peaceful and opened broad paths of future and hope,” Pinera said.

Pinera’s initial approach to the violence as a law-and-order matter only made things worse. He later apologized for failing to recognize genuine grievances and announced measures including raising taxes for high-income earners and lifting basic pensions. For many protesters, though, the measures fell short. They called for an immediate withdrawal of troops from the streets.

While more than 600 supermarkets have been looted, the occurrence of serious violence has slowed. Losses for Chile’s retail sector due to looting and lost sales reached $1.4 billion since the protests began, according to the Santiago Chamber of Commerce.

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, now the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said she would send a team to look into allegations of human rights violations, a move the government welcomed.

A survey of 2,090 Chileans by pollster Activa Research between Oct. 22 and Oct 23 showed that 84% supported the demonstrations. In the same poll, 37% of respondents said the government has been slow to respond to the demands and 58% said the government has failed to respond at all.

“We have all listened,” Pinera said. “We have all changed. And now we need to find answers to these social demands.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sebastian Boyd in Santiago at sboyd9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric J. Weiner at eweiner12@bloomberg.net, Eduardo Thomson, Jose Orozco

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