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Rally held in Wellington in support of Chilean protesters
05:00am 23/10/2019
Organise Aotearoa joined a rally held by the Chilean expatriate community on Tuesday outside the Chilean Embassy in Wellington, following widespread repression and brutality against protesters by President Sebastián Piñera’s armed forces.
Up to a hundred
people gathered at Frank Kitts Park opposite the embassy,
chanting, dancing, holding signs, and waving Chilean flags
in solidarity with protesters in Chile.
The Chilean
military has been deployed onto the streets for the first
time since Augusto Pinochet’s fascist military
dictatorship, which lasted between 1973 and 1990. Thousands
of people were tortured, killed, had their children
uplifted, and were forcibly disappeared under Pinochet’s
dictatorship.
Neoliberal policies pioneered under
Pinochet, such as privatised water and utilities, low wages,
and trashed healthcare and education systems, were never
overturned by successive governments.
Recent reports
say that at least thirteen people have been killed so far.
1906 people have been detained, and 10500 soldiers and
police have been deployed to suppress protests.
A
petition has been launched on ActionStation by Chilean
expatriates calling on the New Zealand government to condemn
Piñera’s brutality. Many in the expatriate community were
political refugees of Pinochet’s regime, and these attacks
on democracy and people’s freedoms are a harsh reminder of
the dictatorship.
“The New Zealand government must
condemn Piñera’s brutal repression of protesters,” says
Organise Aotearoa spokesperson Kate McIntyre. “We support
Chileans who are calling for justice and democracy after the
36 long years of fascism, neoliberalism, and austerity.
Working people in Chile deserve better.”
ENDS
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