‘An Expression Of Brutality’: Protestors Cheer As Torched Church Burns To The Ground In Chile
Protesters in Chile’s capital torched two churches, looted stores and clashed with police in a spasm of violence a week before a referendum on whether to ditch a dictatorship-era constitution.
Television images from Santiago on Sunday showed masked protesters filming with their smartphones and cheering as the spire of the burning La Asunción church crashed to the ground. Demonstrators also set fire to San Francisco Borja church, which dates from the mid-19th century.
The demonstrations began when high-school students upset over a small subway-fare increase rushed subway stations and took to the streets. That quickly morphed into far larger protests in which hundreds of thousands of Chileans conveyed their discontent over poor health care, small pensions and economic inequality despite years of robust growth and declines in poverty....
