Hooded men vandalized the exterior of the La Moneda presidential palace this Sunday during the march to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état against Salvador Allende in Chile. to which the leftist president Gabriel Boric joined.
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A group of protesters destroyed windows of the government headquarters with stones and sticks, scratched the walls with aerosol spray and knocked down the fences that surrounded the protest route.
Riot agents dissolved the hooded men with tear gas and water cannons. Three people were detained and three uniformed officers were injured, according to the government report.
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“As President of the Republic, I categorically condemn these events without any qualification. (…) “His irrationality of attacking what Allende and so many other democrats fought for is vile and mean.”Boric reacted on his X account.
The incidents marred the march of some 5,000 people, which passed through part of the center of Santiago on the way to the capital’s General Cemetery. The leftist Boric briefly joined the demonstration, the first ruler since the return to democracy (1990) to join this march on September 11, the date of the 1973 coup d’état.
Allende, who committed suicide on the same day of the coup, was overthrown by the military under the command of General Augusto Pinochet, who led a dictatorship that lasted for 17 years, leaving more than 3,200 victims, including dead and missing detainees.
During this Sunday’s march, Carabineros troops also clashed with protesters who threw stones and Molotov cocktails, and set up barricades which they set on fire.
The bulk of the column of protesters, carrying Chilean flags, left-wing party flags and banners with slogans such as “Truth and justice now” and “Allende lives”, advanced peacefully.
“September 11 is a date that fills us with memories, but that gives us a little anguish, because instead of moving forward we have gone backwards,” said Patricia Garzón (76), former political prisoner and partner of a politician executed by the dictatorship. .
Earlier, Boric had inaugurated, together with Allende’s family, an installation at the La Moneda gate, on Morandé Street, where the ruler’s body was taken after committing suicide by shooting himself.
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As part of the exhibition “The Walk of a Democrat” the shoes that Allende wore during the coup d’état, the day the Air Force bombed the La Moneda Palace, are displayed in a display case.
AFP
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