Rival protests are taking place in Chile’s capital ahead of the 50th anniversary of a military coup that removed the democratically-elected President Salvador Allende and brought General Augusto Pinochet to power.
“The crowds have been very mixed and so have their messages. It has been a very violent day so far,” Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Santiago, said on Sunday.
“It was mayhem,” she said.
More than 3,200 people were killed or “disappeared” – abducted and presumed killed - by Pinochet’s security forces. About 38,000 were tortured during his 17-year dictatorship. The general died of a heart attack on December 10, 2006, at the age of 91. He was never tried in court.
Sunday’s march through the streets of the capital to the general cemetery that houses a memorial to the victims of Pinochet’s brutal regime, stopped briefly at the presidential palace, La Moneda, where then-president Allende was overthrown on September 11, 1973.
Leftist President Gabriel Boric joined the procession of approximately 5,000 people, according to the government – becoming the first leader of Chile since the end of the dictatorship in 1990 to do so.
Article from www.aljazeera.com rnrn