My First Protest - Chile Style
On the first afternoon I arrived in Chile, while my cousin Dane and I were walking the dog, we passed two young men putting up a sign in Spanish. I tried to read it - “The freedom to decide. Protest against the dictatorship of the Constitutional Tribunal”. Dane started telling me about how common protests were in the city and that if I stayed I would almost certainly have an experience with tear gas. I thought that was interesting, especially given that Chile is improving month by month and when compared with the country under Pinochet’s rule I would have thought they’d have little to complain about such that it required a protest, let alone tear gas.
So off I went today, on my own, for a walk. I wandered from Recoleta down through Barrio Bellavista and into the city to Santa Lucia by lunch time, where I happened upon a large group of people preparing to protest. And the media. And a whole swarm of police. And some riot vans. And some armored water cannon vehicles. Not that they were required, it was very peaceful.
The story is this - more than a year ago, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet (a paediatrician and single mother) noted that the morning-after pill was expensive and was effectively unavailable to poor women (who incidentally are in most need of assistance with contraception). She authorised a move to make the morning-after pill available for free to all women over 14 years.
Since that time, the president’s right-wing opponents (read: Catholic conservatives and wealthy male business owners) have taken the matter to the tribunal declaring that the morning-after pill was not a contraceptive but an abortive, and that as such was illegal (abortion for any reason has been illegal under Chilean law since around the end of Pinochet’s rule).
The tribunal agreed and the directive from the president was overturned. Apparently there is no way to appeal a tribunal decision. This didn’t make the morning-after pill illegal, it just overturned the decision for public clinics to provide it. Which is weird… if they decided it was illegal to use it to abort, why not enforce this across the board rather than allowing those that can afford to pay for the drug (or for a doctor to prescribe it in a private clinic) to step around the law?
So a lot of women (and not a few men) gathered together to show their displeasure, as expressing oneself seems to be something highly encouraged in Chile (maybe after such restrictions as Pinochet?) and the protest, while serious, appeared to be in good spirits and peaceful.
I had a bit of a sticky beek at Santa Lucia and then went about my walk through the rest of the city, and eventually found my way to Plaza de Armas, the main plaza in the centre of the CBD. I was standing just in front of the church when a group of police (complete with helmets and bullet-proof jackets) appeared, and their favourite little riot van. Not long after this the protesters arrived as well. Just before they entered the plaza the police closed the gates to the church (kindly informed those inside that no, they would not open the gates) and then blocked off some side roads with other police.
At first I thought they were moving through the plaza on the way to the tribunal, but when they stopped it appeared that they were specifically protesting against the church on this one. As I found myself sandwiched between the church wall, a bunch of armoured cops and a large group of protesters - none of whom I could understand - as well as a few dodgey (cough - pickpocket) looking young men, I thought it prudent to promptly move on from the plaza so I am not sure if they did continue to the Tribunal building. It was only a block or two away so I’m guessing they got there unless the police stopped them.
I did see a single man with a sign standing in front of the Tribunal, but I couldn’t quite make out the message on his billboard, let alone translate it into English.
Anyway, so ends my first experience walking alone in the CBD, and my first Chilean protest. No tear gas this time, but Dane tells me that the May Day protests usually get a bit heated and occasionally end with people interfering with cables for power supply among other things, which of course pretty much guarantees a response from the police. I might stay home for that one 
Other info on the protest and the reason for it (all in English):
- Chile , Photo Posts , South America , Travel
May 9th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Nice work Gringa!! - wouldnt you rather be working?;)
Can you bring me back a couple-o-teaspoons of chilean volcano dust
- they tell me it’s awesome.