Analysis of Factors Behind Chile’s Protests

Abstract

Broken out on October 18, protests and riots have been going on for weeks in Santiago de Chile. Most of the international press characterises these simply as the social crisis of the neoliberal Chilean model. Numerous political analysts speak about “obvious causes” ranging from the crisis of neoliberal capitalism to the subversive intervention of Cuba and Venezuela. Latin America’s most advanced and stable economy has literally burst into flames. Are those right who are talking about another wave of the Latin American political left, such as the elected president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández? Or will the view of Mario Vargas Llosa, a Nobel Prize-winning writer be correct, when he does not identify the above mentioned happenings with recent protests in other Latin American countries, but rather with the French yellow jacket movement? (La Nación, 2019. 11. 04.) What has been going on in Chile? Who are the protesters? What are they demanding? What kind of solution are the events moving towards?