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| - Chile's raging protests over social inequality, from October 2019 forward, left around 30 people dead and led the country to scrap its dictatorship-era constitution. Here is a recap of the country's worst crisis since its return to democracy in 1990 as it prepares to vote at the weekend for a new assembly to rewrite the constitution. Protests in Chile's capital, Santiago, against a rise in metro fares on October 18, 2019 escalate into clashes between police and demonstrators angry at high levels of social inequality. Right-wing President Sebastian Pinera declares a state of emergency. Soldiers are deployed in the city the next day for the first time since the end of the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. A curfew is imposed as thousands bang pots and pans in the street. Pinera -- a billionaire businessman -- suspends the ticket price hike. As clashes, looting and vandalism continue, the state of emergency is extended to other regions. Pinera apologizes and announces more social spending on October 22, but a two-day general strike begins the following day. Strikers demand the military return to barracks. Some 1.2 million Chileans take to the streets in Santiago on October 25 under banners declaring that the country had mobilized to fight current conditions. As tensions ease, the nighttime curfew and state of emergency are lifted and Pinera reshuffles a third of his cabinet. But the street movement continues. In November, Chile gives up on hosting the APEC Asia Pacific economic summit and later the COP25 climate conference, because of the unrest. The central bank is forced to twice inject billions of dollars to stop the fall of the peso. In a breakthrough on November 15, lawmakers agree to a key opposition demand for a referendum on replacing the constitution. Police on November 19 suspend the use of rubber bullets which left hundreds of people with serious eye injuries. The government follows this up in early December with a $5.5 billion social plan, and a month later the president announces reform of the health system. The United Nations, meanwhile, denounces multiple rights violations by the police. After a period of calm punctuated by demonstrations every Friday in Santiago, new clashes in late January 2020 turn deadly, with four people killed. Violence erupts again on February 23 at Vina del Mar near Valparaiso, and then in early March in several other towns. The president announces a reform of the police. Chile declares a "national disaster" in mid-March due to the pandemic, with protests paused and the referendum, originally scheduled for April, postponed to October 25. The president carries out a fifth cabinet reshuffle. Santiago starts loosening its lockdown in mid-August and demonstrations resume. A police officer in early October shoves a 16-year-old protester off a bridge. On October 18, tens of thousands of Chileans demonstrate on the first anniversary of the protests in a day marked by clashes and the torching of two churches. A week later, Chileans vote 79 percent in the referendum for a new constitution be drawn up. Interior Minister Victor Perez resigns on November 3 after being suspended by Congress due to police violence. In late March 2021, Chile locks down four fifths of its population as the virus surges again. The election of the constituent assembly charged with revising the constitution is put off to mid-May. ang/jmy/fg/mlr/mdl
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