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Agence France-Presse

Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera announced a major government reshuffle, a day after more than one million people took to the streets in a massive protest for economic and political change.
“I asked all ministers to resign in order to form a new government and to be able to respond to these new demands,” he said in an address to the nation on Saturday, adding that a highly controversial state of emergency might be lifted Sunday if “circumstances permit”.
The military also announced that an overnight curfew would be lifted Saturday.
“We are in a new reality,” Pinera said.

“Chile is different from what it was a week ago.”
A document obtained by Reuters, however, suggested Pinera was considering replacing the heads of at least nine ministries, including the ministries of interior, defence, economy, transport and environment.
The government has been struggling to craft an effective response to deadly protests that were sparked by a rise in metro fares but fuelled by a growing list of economic and political demands that include Pinera’s resignation.
The breadth and ferocity of the demonstrations appear to have caught the government of Chile – long one of Latin America’s richest and most stable countries – off guard.
Chile’s president offers measures to quell violent street protests before Apec summit in Santiago
For the past week, pent-up anger erupted in demonstrations over a socio-economic structure that many feel has left them by the wayside.
On Saturday afternoon, however, the military presence in the capital was visibly reduced, even as a hundred protesters gathered in front of the presidential palace before being dispersed by water cannon.
Across the capital and elsewhere in the country, demonstrations materialised only sporadically, just one day after the mega-protests of more than a million people.
Five of Santiago’s seven metro lines – which usually carry three million people per day – are now partially operating, and 98 per cent of buses were functional. Shops had reopened.

A thousand volunteers gathered downtown to clear protest debris and scrub walls covered in slogans such as “Chile woke up” and “Pinera resign”.
Pinera, who assumed office in March 2018, had already shuffled his cabinet twice in 15 months as doubts grew about a slowing economy and his leadership.
One of the most controversial members of the current cabinet is Interior Minister Andres Chadwick, the president’s cousin.
Eric Silva, a professor of biology, said Pinera had to implement the latest shuffle because he is “trapped”.
Hong Kong, Chile, Iraq, Lebanon: protests erupt around the world
“It will be helpful but it’s not how they are going to solve the problems,” he said.
The protesters’ demands now also include scrapping and replacing the nation’s Constitution, which dates from the 1973-90 Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.
The more than one million people who took to the streets of Santiago and other cities on Friday represented a range of political backgrounds and hailed from all social classes.
The protests represented some of the largest demonstrations ever seen in the country of 18 million, and police said 820,000 people marched in the capital alone.
The week of unrest began with an initial burst of violence as protesters and looters destroyed metro stations, torched supermarkets, smashed traffic lights and bus shelters, and erected burning street barricades. Looting and arson have been widespread.




At least 19 people died in the worst political violence since Chile returned to democracy after the Pinochet dictatorship.
Authorities deployed some 20,000 police and soldiers in Santiago, using tear gas and water cannon to disperse demonstrators.
Security forces have been accused of using unnecessary force in putting down the protests. The United Nations is sending a team to investigate allegations of abuse.
Chile ‘at war’ as worst riots in decades spread to rest of the country
The national human rights institute INDH, meanwhile, said 584 people have been wounded and 2,410 detained.
Pinera apologised earlier in the week for failing to anticipate the social unrest and announced a raft of measures designed to placate people, such as increases in minimum pensions and wages, higher taxes on the wealthy, and a rollback on the metro fare increase.
The conservative billionaire said Friday on Twitter that “we have all heard the message. We have all changed. With unity and help from God, we will travel the road towards a Chile that is better for all.”
However the protest movement lacks recognisable leaders and was mostly roused through social media, which analysts say makes it harder for the government to negotiate any resolution.
Additional reporting by Reuters


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Americas and the Caribbean

Chile’s embattled president asks ‘all ministers to resign’ amid massive protests

Friday’s historic demonstration in central Santiago drew 1.2 million people. Photo: AFP

In this aerial view thousands of people protest in Santiago, on October 25, 2019, a week after protests started. - Demonstrations against a hike in metro ticket prices in Chile's capital exploded into violence on October 18, unleashing widening protests over living costs and social inequality. (Photo by Pedro Ugarte / AFP)

TOPSHOT - Chilean President Sebastian Pinera addresses the nation in Santiago, on October 26, 2019. - A nighttime curfew in the Chilean capital Santiago was lifted by the military on Saturday after a week of deadly demonstrations demanding economic reforms and the resignation of President Sebastian Pinera. (Photo by Pedro Lopez / AFP)

Riot police fire water cannon at demonstrators in Santiago. Photo: AFP

Chile’s president offers measures to quell violent street protests before Apec summit in Santiago

People protest in Santiago, on the fifth straight day of street violence which erupted over a now suspended hike in metro ticket prices. Photo: AFP

Handout picture released by the Chilean Presidency showing Chilean President Sebastian Pinera speaking to the nation in Santiago, on October 22, 2019, on a fifth straight day of protests against a now suspended hike in metro ticket prices. - Pinera announced a package of social measures on Tuesday in a bid to bring an end to five days of violent protests that left 15 dead. Pinera vowed to increase the universal basic pension by 20 percent, freeze tariffs on electricity and propose a law that would see the state cover the costs of expensive medical treatment. (Photo by HO / Chilean Presidency / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / CHILE'S PRESIDENCY / HO" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

View of demonstrators clashing with riot police on the fifth straight day of street violence which erupted over a now suspended hike in metro ticket prices, in front of La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, on October 22, 2019. - President Sebastian Pinera convened a meeting with leaders of Chile's political parties on Tuesday in the hope of finding a way to end street violence that has claimed 15 lives, as anti-government campaigners threatened new protests. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI / AFP)

A demonstrator holds a Chilean flag toward an armored police vehicle during an anti-government march in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. Unrest began last week when a rise in subway fares led to student protests, but then spread nationwide, fueled by frustration among many Chileans who feel they have note shared in the economic advances in one of Latin America’s wealthiest nations. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A demonstrator uses a stone thrower at Plaza Italia during the fifth straight day of protest which erupted over a now suspended hike in metro ticket prices, in Santiago, on October 22, 2019. - President Sebastian Pinera convened a meeting with leaders of Chile's political parties on Tuesday in the hope of finding a way to end street violence that has claimed 15 lives, as anti-government campaigners threatened new protests. (Photo by Pedro Ugarte / AFP)

Soldiers detain suspected looters as protests against high living costs continue, in Concepcion, Chile October 22, 2019. REUTERS/Juan Gonzalez NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

Hong Kong, Chile, Iraq, Lebanon: protests erupt around the world

Protesters march from Causeway Bay in June. Photo: Sam Tsang

TOPSHOT - An Iraqi protester takes cover during a demonstration against state corruption, failing public services, and unemployment in the Iraqi capital Baghdad's central Khellani Square on October 4, 2019. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)

A man jumps over a fire during a voodoo ceremony to grant protection to the people, as protesters calling for the resignation of President Jovenel Moise gathered at a bridge in the Delmar area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. Haiti's embattled president was forced on Thursday to hold a private ceremony amid heavy security for what is usually a public celebration of one of the country's founding fathers, revolution leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

People gather as shops burn in the background during a protest in Wamena in Papua province, Indonesia, Monday, Sept 23, 2019. Hundreds of protesters in Indonesia's restive Papua province set fire to homes and other buildings Monday in a protest sparked by rumors that a teacher had insulted students, and a soldier was killed in another protest in the region, police said. (AP Photo)

Female protesters stand in a line before Lebanese army soldiers during a demonstration on the seventh day of protest against tax increases and official corruption, in Zouk Mosbeh, north of the capital Beirut, on October 23, 2019. - The almost one-week-old massive street protests in Lebanon, sparked by a tax on messaging services such as WhatsApp, have morphed into a united condemnation of a political system seen as corrupt and beyond repair. (Photo by JOSEPH EID / AFP)

Hong Kong police clash with anti-government protesters during a demonstration in Causeway Bay on October 6. Photo: Reuters

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The country has seen a week of violent protests which claimed at least 19 lives
President has already cancelled metro fare hikes that sparked the protests. He also announced other reforms



On Friday, more than a million people called for radical reforms at a peaceful rally in Santiago, with demonstrators calling for the resignation of President Sebastian Pinera.


Chile’s embattled president asks ‘all ministers to resign’ amid massive protests

The country has seen a week of violent protests which claimed at least 19 lives President has already cancelled metro fare hikes that sparked the protests. He also announced other reforms

The country has seen a week of violent protests which claimed at least 19 lives

President has already cancelled metro fare hikes that sparked the protests. He also announced other reforms