ONLINE CURRENTS VOL3 - Flipbook - Page 50
Councilwoman Iraci Hassler succinctly described as being a desire for a political model
which “prioritizes the lives of human beings above private property.” 3
The collective ire was certainly not new, not by any stretch. It had manifested itself variously
with the feminist protests of 2018, and that same year with another furious response after the
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son of a highly regarded Mapuche indigenous leader was beaten and shot in the back of
the head by a team of policemen. Not long before that event, there was yet another uprising,
this time in response to the inadequate provisions presented by the state for pension
reforms. Prior to 2019, therefore, there had been a sequential history of clashes between
multiple sectors of the civilian body, in opposition to actors of the state.
In almost all cases, these protests were responded to in an overwhelmingly heavy-handed
and authoritarian manner. Police with batons and rubber bullets were sent out not to
manage situations and keep the peace, but to defeat the protesters, and send a message to
other potential future rebels. During the nationwide revolt, in fact, police deliberately targeted
the eyes of demonstrators with rubber bullets, leaving over 200 blinded. 5
It increasingly seemed as though the state - run by oligarchs and members of the wealthy
elite - had no interest in listening to its people, much less making reparations; it seemed to
almost everyone as though the lives of humans were being lost in the face of government
decisions designed to benefit big business, multinationals, and private property.
This feeling was not exclusively social - it was also fundamentally environmental.
One of the most contentious issue was water.
Water in Chile had been privatized during the 1973-1990 regime of military dictator Augusto
Pinochet, a landmark decision which made Chile then - and now - the only country on earth
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