The area, which demonstrators have renamed Dignity Plaza, is coated in layers of graffiti, with most shops looted and shuttered. While the most violent protests have for now dissipated, these forces continue to gnaw away at social cohesion and could once again spark unrest unexpectedly and suddenly. Protests morphed into the biggest social unrest since at least the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and 1980s. Two days after the protests began, Cruz was on the street. “The more repression, the greater the adrenaline to resist,” she said in reference to the October protests and clashes over fuel prices.

Source: thestar January 11, 2020 15:56 UTC