President Sebastian Pinera held a meeting with leaders of some of Chile’s opposition parties on Tuesday, aiming to find a way to end street violence that has claimed 15 lives amid sustained protests.
Three parties, including Chile’s largest opposition group the Socialist Party, boycotted the meeting, while protesters took to the streets of the capital Santiago and other cities once again, mostly peacefully.
The army announced a night-time curfew — from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am — for the fourth day in a row.
The country’s worst violence in decades erupted on Friday, initially triggered by an increase in metro fares.
But it has mushroomed into a broader outcry against social and economic woes, including a yawning gap between rich and poor, in a country normally considered one of the most stable in Latin America.
The conservative Pinera declared over the weekend that the country was “at war against a powerful, implacable enemy,” and imposed a state of emergency on Santiago and most of Chile’s 16 regions.
But he adopted a more conciliatory tone on Monday, calling on other parties to join him in trying to find “solutions to the problems afflicting Chileans.”
Thousands still gathered peacefully at the Plaza Italia focal point in the capital on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the country’s largest union, the Workers’ United Center of Chile (CUT) alongside 18 other social organizations, called strikes and protests for Thursday and Friday.
The public health sector workers’ union also announced its own plans for industrial action.
