By Eduardo Thomson, Ezra Fieser and Stephan Kueffner / BloombergIt is called Italy Plaza, a vast traffic circle in the Chilean capital, Santiago. 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. They just guarded from Italy Plaza to the rich neighborhoods.”Vargas’ father, a former factory worker, collects a monthly disability pension of just 80,000 pesos (US$103). Protests morphed into the biggest social unrest since at least former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.

Source: Taipei Times January 15, 2020 09:08 UTC