Chile: no weakening of social contestation in the face of a sclerotic political class

Since 18 October 2019, Chile has been living through its biggest social conflict since the period of dictatorship ended in 1990. The entire political class that is now at its most unpopular is struggling to find answers that can assuage a social malaise running rampant through the country for years.
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The announcement of a broad ‘package of social measures’ has not had the desired effect on the demonstrators, and a recent cabinet reshuffle, rushed through by the liberal right President Sebastián Piñera on 28 October 2019 even less so. Eight new Ministers were announced and barely had the ink dried on the paper when the nation’s cities’ major thoroughfares were once again filled with placards and banners. Ten days earlier it was a metro ticket that ignited the situation. A sudden...

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